Like Banquo’s ghost, Jo Negrini has returned to haunt Croydon after her latest jaunt to the south of France for the annual “booze and hooker fest” – or prestigious international property conference – that is MIPIM.
Haunting Croydon: Jo Negrini, the former chief exec at Croydon, was back at MIPIM this year
When “Negreedy” was the over-paid and over-rated chief executive of Croydon Council, she would make the trip to Cannes on an annual basis with her closest work colleagues, such as the recently departed and unlamented Heather Cheesbrough (now the council’s former “director of planning and sustainable regeneration”).
Even discredited ex-council leader Tony Newman saw MIPIM for what it is: he called it “a junket”, but that didn’t stop him allowing Negrini to head off for almost a week each March on an all-expenses-paid mini-break.
Those were the days when money was not object as far as Negreedy was concerned, her spending £20,000 of tax-payers’ cash in 2019 – with the Town Hall’s financial collapse just 18 months away.
The council bosses, on a mission to “sell” Croydon to profit-hnugry developers from around the world on the back of the promised £1.4billion Westfield development (remember that?), were often accompanied by business people seeking to ratchet a few extra quid into private pockets from public sources, such as Richard Plant, of estate agents Stiles Harold Williams.
Plant remains a driving force behind the oxymoronic Develop Croydon and a mover and shaker on Croydon BID, where Croydon’s part-time Mayor, Jason Perry, is a director.
It is understood that Plant and SHW still have a say in the management of Croydon Council’s property portfolio and in the management of the Whitgift Foundation’s holdings.
Undue influence: property business figure Richard Plant (right) works closely with Croydon’s piss-poor Mayor, Jason Perry, and his chum, Jeet Bains
It is almost five years since Negrini’s ignominious, but very well-rewarded, exit from Fisher’s Folly, scrambling from the wreckage of the council finances she had done so much to crash. She was back at MIPIM last month, but now pitching for foreign investment on behalf of the whole of the capital, as part of a sales team assembled by London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan.
Our city is up for sale to the highest bidder.
And Negrini was relishing being back in the spotlight with developer high-rollers. “Looking forward to discussing equitable growth at MIPIM at the London Stand with some planning and regeneration big hitters!” she gushed ahead of the event.
Negrini now blags a living as a director for Arup, one of the companies which used to get juicy contracts from Croydon Council when she was CEO.
To some, given her track record, it may feel an odd fit for Negrini to lecture the world on how to make a quick buck at the expense of public bodies. For MIPIM 2025, there was no mention at all of Croydon on Negrini’s conference blurb. Funny that.
Like her old mate Cheesbrough, Negrini has a very rose-tinted view of her own self-worth, and thinks nothing of boasting of her (non-)achievements on social media.
“What a great panel yesterday at the London Stand chaired by Laura Jenkinson who did well given she had completely lost her voice,” Negrini shared on her LinkedIn profile after her first day in Cannes.
Investment opportunity: London’s MIPIM pitch for foreign investment did not seem to be too choosy about who represented the city
Negrini was on a panel together with Victoria Hills, the chief exec of the Royal Town Planners Institute, Katie Stewart, from the City of London, and Joanna Averley, from the Ministry of Housing.
They were discussing “Planning change, driving growth”, which, on the evidence of her time in Croydon – the Westfield non-development, the £200million disaster that was Brick by Brick and the £70million Fairfield Halls fiasco – Negrini knows absolutely nothing about.
“Big day for Joanna Averley what with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill heralding the rise of strategic planning, new direction powers for the Secretary of State for major infrastructure, locally determined planning fees and a raft of other initiatives to ‘rebuild Britain and kick start economic growth’.”
Negrini likes to cast herself as some kind of expert on “strategic planning”. If Sir Sadiq ever bothered to take a look around Croydon, he’d be within his rights to ask why Negrini was allowed anywhere near a stand supposedly promoting London.
In her latest career-hustling update on her social media, Negrini aligned herself closely with the Starmer Labour government’s desire to build, build, build, as she – unoriginally – suggested setting up a task force “to focus on unlocking the roughly 1.1million homes that already have consent”. Presumably, Negrini’s new employers, Arup, expect to get a slice of that development action.
Negrini wrote of her contribution to MIPIM 2025: “I spoke about the link between planning and economic growth and the need to clearly define what we mean by economic growth, how we will measure it, how it will feel to our communities and how will we know if we’re successful.”
There’s nearly half-a-million residents in Croydon, all burdened with steepling Council Tax bills and devastated services, who’d be fully entitled to ask what Negrini has to contribute on any of those topics.
It’s just a shame that Mayor Sadiq Khan didn’t.
Read more: Negrini doctored specialist reports and withheld finance details
Read more: Police drop all investigations into council’s financial collapse
Read more: Negrini’s fellowship and council’s deal with architects’ firm
Read more: Mayor Perry and Negrini together again at Growth Plan launch
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No glass ceiling for this utter failure.
These people are utterly shameless.
They never mention and discuss their past track records at these puffed up events.
It’s all about selling the future in glowing terms and what we can do for your company and project.
She acts like nothing happened. I mean, how are people that fucking stupid to employ her ?
The whole gang who bankrupted Croydon (Negreedy, Newman, Hall, Lacey, Scott, Butler) should be in prison, not still at large to commit more crimes. They should be joined in prison by the current crooks (Piss-Poor Perry and the Kerswell).
At least, the newly unbanned Newman acknowledged he fucked up and is nowhere to be seen ever again and rightly so. Negrini is a shameless bully who will whore anything for money it seems .
When did Newman ever do that?
Think you’ll find he’s always claimed that there’s “no evidence” of wrongdoing.
Yep, that’s right: from the man who did not allow proper minutes to be kept of council meetings…
So Jo Negrini is looking to clearly define what economic growth is? This must be a deep philosophical question for her to deal with since she clearly believed blighting an area for decades is economic growth. Perhaps the man who hired her to Croydon Council didn’t ask her this question in her job interview to head redevelopment of the centre of Croydon or perhaps the simple truth is that Jason Perry is as clueless as Negrini about the simple fact of economic growth since he has just presided over further blight and ruin since his appointment as Mayor.
A wonderfully uplifting story for Holy Week. A maligned individual is crucified, alongside two thieves. They are forgiven by the Lord (Evans of Sealand, in case you wondered) while She is risen and has entered into the Kingdom of Heaven, aka City Hall in E16. Hallelujah!
Anyone who wants to object to Negrini’s involvement with London after being the CEO who bankrupted a London Borough can do so here: https://www.london.gov.uk/contact-us-form