Gill Steward will join Cumbria CC as chief executive in August once the move is approved by full council. Ms Steward is the current chair of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies thinktank. She was chief executive for Bexley LBC from 2016 to 2018 and interim chief executive of West Sussex CC between 2014 and 2016.
Gillian Beasley, chief executive of Cambridgeshire CC and Peterborough City Council, is retiring. Ms Beasley has been at the helm of Peterborough for 19 years and, in addition, was six years ago appointed to run Cambridgeshire in a unique county council/unitary arrangement. In 2008 she was awarded an OBE for her work in local government.
Conservative group leader Cllr Linda Huggett (Monkhams) said her members supported the proposed housing budget but feared the council was not building fast enough.
She said: “We are concerned that the council is failing at the current time to deliver. I urge the new cabinet member to start delivering on your housing promises.
“We received £20million in funding from the Greater London Authority to help with our housing shortage, which has still not been used and, if not used soon, will have to be returned.”
In January, Redbridge Council failed the government’s “housing delivery test” after building 1,929 homes in the past three years, less than two thirds of the amount needed according to the London Plan.
Ilford Town Hall and Ilford High Street 21/5/14 EL77212 1. Redbridge Council’s budget for housing after failing the Government’s “delivery test” passed unanimously but not without heated argument. The new cabinet member for housing, announced in January this year, said the council “is going above and beyond” and plans to deliver 1,000 affordable homes by 2022. The Conservative group, despite supporting the budget, argued the council was “failing to deliver” and was “one of the worst performing councils in the country”. This year, a council-owned company Roding Homes, set up in 2019, is expected to become “fully operational” and start letting homes to hundreds of homeless residents.