EXCLUSIVE: Councillors were kept in the dark about departure of council’s S151 officer, as her exit is linked to the government’s appointment of Commissioners. By STEVEN DOWNES
Jane West, Croydon’s finance director since 2022, is to stand down from her job at Fisher’s Folly.
West’s announcement comes barely a month since government-appointed Commissioners arrived to take over the management of the cash-strapped council.
In her statement, West said “my work here is almost done”, although Croydon’s “toxic debt” today stands at around £1.4billion – pretty much the same as when she was appointed as “corporate director resources” nearly four years ago. What has changed is that residents are paying 27% more Council Tax compared to before West took charge of Croydon’s purse strings.
West made the announcement of her intention to quit on LinkedIn, the job-seekers’ preferred social media. Her move was quickly interpreted by some Katharine Street sources as being the first sign of the impact of Commissioners, and also a signal that time may be running out for chief exec Katherine Kerswell.
On her way out: council finance director Jane West
There has been no announcement by Croydon Council of West’s impending departure – she’s effectively given eight months’ notice – and Town Hall sources say that elected councillors were not advised of this significant development.
Jason Cummings, the Conservative Mayor’s cabinet member for finances, said, “‘Jane has done a very good job during difficult times here at Croydon.
“I wish her all the best as she moves on to pastures new!”
It was as recently as July 17 when local government minister Jim McMahon confirmed his decision to appoint Commissioners, a response to another multi-million-pound bail-out for Croydon’s basketcase council and the admission from Tory Mayor Jason Perry that he would be unable to deliver a balanced council budget in 2026.
West herself has repeatedly described Croydon’s financial position as “unsustainable”, but the fix that she would have preferred, a debt write-off from government of hundreds of millions of pounds, has never been forthcoming. Just making debt and interest repayments on Croydon’s borrowing is now costing residents more than £60million per year.
In 2024-2025, Croydon overspent Mayor Perry’s council budget by more than £30million, something which prompted the unironically named “improvement panel” to describe the council’s spending as “runaway”.
In his statement to the House of Commons last month, McMahon justified his escalation in intervention in the borough by describing Croydon, under Kerswell, Perry and West, as “one of the most financially distressed councils in the country”.
The role of Commissioners, McMahon said, includes “oversight of strategic financial management and decision-making”, as well as “the appointment, dismissal and performance management of senior and statutory officer positions”. That would include someone known as the Section 151 officer, in charge of council finances, such as West.
Job-seeker: the announcement of West’s exit from Croydon was made last night via social media
In her social media post last night, West said: “Having completed six sets of accounts in three and a half years, Croydon Council received its 2023-2024 audit certificate earlier this week and Grant Thornton have embarked on their audit of Croydon’s 2024-2025 accounts. These milestones have led me to conclude that my work here is almost complete.
“I still have the 2024-2025 external audit to get through, an Oracle Improvement Plan to complete in December, a budget to set in February and some other loose ends to tie up by the end of March, but then it will be time to handover my S151 role to someone else.
“On 1 April I will be 60. When I started in local government in 1987, I was promised I could retire at 60! Obviously a lot has changed in the world since then and after 38 years of continuous service, it is clear I am in no position to fully retire at this stage. But I have decided that will be the right time for a career change to take me through the next 10 years.
“So after 25 years of (mainly) being S151 in four different London boroughs, on 1 April I am going to step away from the role and do other things. Preferably other things that don’t require me to be on Gold duty 7+ weeks a year, to sit in quite so many meetings or take legal responsibility for balancing overall council budgets….
“Sadly, this means I have to move on from Croydon, which will be a wrench. The people I have worked with since 2022 have been amazing with total commitment to the residents and businesses of the borough. From a bad place in 2020, the council has put the past behind it, recovered its mojo and is improving all the time.
“I am giving more than the usual length of notice to the world so that we all have lots of time to prepare for my departure. It will be a fond farewell to Croydon Council but I’m hoping not an exit from the local government scene to which I remain totally committed.”
Who’s next?: Katherine Kerswell, Croydon’s £204,000 chief executive
West’s role at Croydon has been significant.
Although £204,000 per year Kerswell, with her enthusiasm for empire-building, has, at points, managed to have two deputy CEOs to do her work for her, West has been a de facto deputy chief executive, standing in for Kerswell on her frequent and prolonged absences.
It was, of course, on the Friday of the August Bank Holiday weekend in 2020 when an emergency meeting of the council’s appointments committee, whose members included Jason Perry, pushed through the £437,207 golden handshake payment to speed up the departure of the then CEO, Jo “Negreedy” Negrini.
Town Hall sources agree that there is no question of an exit payment being lined up for West, who instead appears to be looking to join the local government gravy train of “interims” on £1,000 per day fees.
The handling of West’s announcement by the council hierarchy, however, has already drawn fierce criticism from the borough’s elected representatives.
“Once again, there has been utter disregard for councillors, with neither Mayor Perry or the council’s chief executive seeing it necessary to inform us of the impending departure of the council’s finance director,” one councillor told Inside Croydon this morning.
Some council sources maintain West’s announcement, coming just weeks after the appointment of Commissioners to look over her shoulder and check her work, is nothing to do with the latest government intervention, and just a thoughtful gesture on her behalf to make finding a replacement a smoother transition than some of the council’s recent top-tier recruitment.
However, another Katharine Street source suggested that West may not be the last high-ranking council employee to be “considering other opportunities”.
They said: “Once the Commissioners came in, West’s days were numbered. I think she’s making it clear to Commissioners that she’s leaving and so there’s no need to force her out.
“After the Negrini scandal, no councillor, Tory or Labour, is going to sign off on any big exit package. But by giving eight months’ notice, Jane guarantees her large salary for longer and retains the option of that interim gravy train.”
And they had words of warning for the chief executive: “Kerswell days are likely to be numbered, too. She has few supporters inside the council, and fewer still at the Ministry.”
Read more: Meet the Commissioners: council experts sent to save Croydon
Read more: Mayor coming under pressure to sack council CEO Kerswell
Read more: Panicked Perry admitted to Rayner: I can’t balance the budget
Read more: £400,000 ‘golden handshake’ is Negrini’s reward for failure
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Giving her notice to the world? Who does she think she is?
It’s just another day at Croydon Council, with another overpaid official cashing in on failure. It’s frustrating to watch public money being used to fund golden goodbyes and lucrative interim gigs for those who’ve overseen poor performance. While services are cut and residents are left to pick up the pieces, the same revolving door keeps turning—rewarding incompetence and leaving taxpayers footing the bill. It’s time for accountability, not just a reshuffling of titles and inflated salaries. She and Kerswell should have been let go a long time ago.
How cynical can you get? She sounds like a consummate professional. She has been open about her plan to leave and her wish to give much more than her contractual notice to put things in as best possible a state for her successor. Lesser mortals would just leave and let somebody else clear up the mess.
And how is she “cashing in on failure”, what “incompetence” is being rewarded and what “golden goodbye” is she getting?
Perry and Kerswell will find it hard to find a replacement both willing *and* able to take over this basket-case borough’s financial affairs
Tough times for local councils—leadership changes like this highlight the urgent need for stronger financial strategies.