EXCLUSIVE: To lose one of her trusted inner circle might be unfortunate for Croydon chief exec Katherine Kerswell, but to lose two is beginning to look like an exodus. By STEVEN DOWNES
Elaine Jackson, the senior council executive who Croydon CEO Katherine Kerswell appointed to ride shot-gun with her when she took charge at Fisher’s Folly almost five years ago, is the latest high-paid council employee to jump ship following the government’s appointment of Commissioners to take over at the basketcase authority.
West’s 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 Kerswell.
Life-changing accident: Elaine Jackson is stepping down as the council’s deputy CEO in November
Jackson had been chief executive at nearby Tandridge District Council for little more than a year when she got the call to cross the county boundary and join Croydon as Kerswell’s deputy – a new role on the council’s chart of executive directors.
The Local Government Association, which had played a key part in recommending Kerswell for Croydon’s top job, funded Jackson’s salary, for at least her first year at Fisher’s Folly.
Kerswell had taken over at crisis-hit Croydon with the authority saddled with debts of £1.4billion. Little has changed on the debt front, with the council three times issuing a Section 114 notice, effective admission that the council could not balance its books. In the most recent financial year, the council bust its budget by £30million, and needed a record £136million bail-out from government.
The unironically named “improvement panel”, in its report to the Secretary of State, described the council’s spending as “runaway”.
Yet according to official figures from the council, obtained through a Freedom of Information request for this website, by 2023-2024, Kerswell has
15
executives working at the council on salaries of £135,000. That’s more than double the number of council executives on those pay scales when Kerswell took over in 2020.
Kerswell is paid £204,000 per year, and is one of six council employees now on £170,000 or more. In 2020, there were just three on such stellar local government salaries.
This blatant empire-building of top-paid execs under Kerswell and Jackson, while hundreds of front-line council jobs have been axed, could well be something that the government Commissioners take a long hard look at.
Kerswell confirmed Jackson’s and West’s exits in her “weekly waffle” to council staff on Friday.
‘Transformation’: council CEO Katherine Kerswell confirmed the departures in her ‘weekly waffle’ to staff
“Both have made really significant contributions to Croydon and will be much missed,” Kerswell wrote. The CEO promised to keep staff “updated on recruitment”, suggesting that she intends to replace both positions (West, as Section 151 officer in charge of the money, is a statutory position which is required by law. Kerswell’s tea-maker, the deputy CEO, not so much…).
Describing them as “two highly valued members of our senior leadership team”, Kerswell waxed lyrical as two of her closest allies within Fisher’s Folly are scarpering for the exits.
West won’t be leaving until April 2026 (“I think she’s making it clear to Commissioners that she’s leaving and so there’s no need to force her out,” a Katharine Street source said last week), but Jackson is leaving more quickly, in November.
“Initially brought to Croydon as part of a package of support provided by the Local Government Association,” Kerswell wrote, “she quickly became part of the Croydon team.”
The clichéd CEO droned on, somewhat delusionary… “council’s improvement journey”… “ongoing recovery”… “the organisation we want to become…”.
“Most recently she has been a big part of our transformation work,” Kerswell continued. Was she now shifting the blame for the costly and failed “digital first” initiative to Jackson?
“She has encouraged teams to think differently and be ambitious in how we use digital technology, helping us improve the services we deliver and the support we offer to residents…”. As mentioned earlier, delusional.
Kerswell made mention of a “life-changing accident” Jackson suffered last year, which created a period when Council Tax-payers were paying for two deputy chief executives to do Kerswell’s dirty work for her.
That accident is now being used as the excuse for Jackson to step down. So nothing to do with the Commissioners at all, then. Kerswell’s memo to staff failed to mention the Commissioners once. “It’s like she’s trying to pretend they’re not there, that it’s all ‘business as usual’,” according to one disillusioned staff member.
How many more senior departures from Kerswell’s bloated and failed administration might there be once the Commissioners really begin on their mission, as expected, early next month?
Read more: Council’s agency staff bill includes £726 per hour consultant
Read more: Go West! Cash-strapped council’s finance chief is set to quit
Read more: Meet the Commissioners: council experts sent to save Croydon
Read more: Mayor coming under pressure to sack council CEO Kerswell
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As they all drop like flies around her, it’s become like Kerswell’s Last Stand.
Are these people going to be replaced? If so, when, how and by whom? If not, why not?
Hopefully not. We would notice no difference
Kerswell said that they would be.
£350,000 per year…
Will Kerswell go down like the Captain of the Titanic or is she waiting for another £450k payoff again?
Nah. Kerswell will take a lifeboat all to herself.
I have lived in Croydon since 1976 and watch it become the dump that it is with the Council paying themselves huge salaries whilst they let the town crumble. I vote the government steps in, sack them all and appoint new executives to manage the council to help restore our town to its former glory providing the services that we pay our council tax for.
I wonder if there were no hq staff if any of us would notice any difference
Given that all queries and communication from council taxpayers is ignored anyway