Liverpool City Council set to have all powers returned
Commissioners were drafted in three years ago after a number of failings were uncovered
Government commissioners are set to hand back powers to Liverpool City Council.
They were drafted in three years ago after a huge number of failings were uncovered at the authority.
The commissioners were brought in to oversee an improvement plan after a damning report described 'multiple failures' - including awarding dubious contracts, a worrying lack of record-keeping, as well as reports of bullying and intimidation.
Three years on, and five reports later, the commissioners say they're happy to return their powers after observing 'significant and continued progress'.
An improvement board is set to make sure that progress continues.
This has been recommended by the Commissioners to Secretary of State Michael Gove, who will make the final decision.
Mike Cunningham, Lead Commissioner at Liverpool City Council, said:
"I was always hopeful that, given the work that the council have been doing... and anyone who has read our last report, will know that we were starting to feel much more optimistic about the progress the council has made - that optimism was well founded.
"There are still some areas in the council that has not yet made the progress we'd want to see. Most notably property and asset management continues to be an area where we want to see more progress and I would envisage that the improvement board going forward will pay particular attention to that.
"The ultimate decision for this improvement board is not one for commissioners, it's for the Secretary of State to decide and what he's announcing today is that he's minded to support that recommendation - subject to a very brief consultation process."
Liverpool City Council leader Liam Robinson said:
"We never ever take the trust of the people of Liverpool for granted. I think we've been able to demonstrate over the last 12 months particularly that we've made some significant improvements as a council but I'm really focused, not just to keep improving as a council, but particularly to start giving even greater focus to some of those bread and butter issues.
"Making sure the additional resources we've put into street cleaning and neighbourhood services start to show a tangible improvement. The fact that our improvement journey for children's social services has gone in a good direction but there's lots more we've got to do.
"The modernisation of adult social services that we're committed to - making sure that delivers better and more personalised care for older people that use social services and then as well, focusing on how we continue to respond to the homelessness emergency in the city and working with really good housing association partners to build more new homes across the city and that's before I even think about how we work with the private sector and some of the investment we've seen in the cruise-liner terminal and also places like Littlewoods, where really good, strong, credible private companies are taking a good strong second look at Liverpool and investing back in the city again.
"Some good progress, but so much more we've got to keep on doing."