Troubled Liverpool City Council to be handed back some powers

Council leader Liam Robinson said he was 'pleased, but not complacent'

Government commissioners overseeing troubled Liverpool City Council could hand back key powers to the authority earlier than planned, a report reveals.

The five-strong team was sent in after a 2021 inspection report labelled parts of it "dysfunctional".

While recommending powers including financial decision-making are handed back, they said the property department remained an area of "acute concern".

Council leader Liam Robinson said he was "pleased, but not complacent".

The report said property services continued to underperform and improvements had "been slow to materialise".

Lead commissioner Mike Cunningham praised the work of the recently installed Mr Robinson and chief executive Andrew Lewis.

He said cautious optimism in a previous assessment in March had been justified and further improvements were now expected.

Such has been the progress made in the council's finance and highways departments, he said he expects to hand back control over those areas in March - three months ahead of schedule.

Mr Robinson said the council would bring in external partners to help manage its property portfolio more professionally.

Mr Cunningham said the council "is a big, multi-faceted organisation where parts of it improve at a different rate to others".

Further concerns were raised around the delivery of services as a whole, which were described as "below standard" by the commissioners, with poor customer service still experienced by many residents. Shortcomings were also identified in the delivery of regeneration across Liverpool.

The commissioners said: "The capability and capacity gaps still remain, the development of a sustainable economic growth strategy to increase productivity and improve prosperity for residents has yet to commence. There still much to do to restart regeneration in the city and restore investor confidence."

Despite this, the commissioners said they felt the council was the "most stable" it has been since their work began almost three years ago but the scale of the challenge remained "very significant".

Mr Robinson said he hoped residents would see "a more professional council".

"We started from a low base," he said.

"The ultimate aim is to be an exemplar local authority because that's what the people of the city deserve."