CROYDON IN CRISIS: Mayor Jason Perry makes another massive ‘reward for failure’ from public money as his chief executive joins the stampede for the exit at Fisher’s Folly. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Resigned: Katherine Kerswell quit her £204,000 per year job yesterday
Katherine Kerswell has resigned from her £204,000 per year job as the chief executive officer at cash-strapped Croydon Council.
According to well-placed sources, Kerswell only agreed to leave after what they describe as “hard negotiations” over a substantial pay-off – though the amount is thought to be below the £95,000 threshold that would require the approval of a meeting of full council.
That there is any ex gratia payment at all being made from public money to a departing CEO will shatter any remaining credibility of Croydon’s Mayor, Jason Perry.
In 2022, when seeking election as Mayor, Tory Perry made a pledge that he would recover some of the £437,973 “golden handshake” paid to Kerswell’s predecessor, Jo “Negreedy” Negrini. In the end, of course, Perry recovered not a penny from Negrini, and he has now handed out tens of thousands more of Council Tax-payers’ cash in another reward for failure. Settlement of Kerswell’s pension contributions, in addition to the pay-off, “would be enough to settle a small, third-world nation’s debt”, according to one Town Hall wag.
Of course, Kerswell’s pay-off will do little, immediately, to assist with bringing down Croydon Council’s £1.4billion debt. Though, for her part as CEO, Kerswell never managed to reduce the council debt that she inherited on her arrival in Croydon in 2020.
For those still working at Fisher’s Folly after five years of often ruthless cuts to jobs at the council by Kerswell, her resignation yesterday is like déjà vu all over again…
Kerswell’s departure comes almost exactly five years since she was parachuted in to Croydon to inherit the omnishambles that had been left by Negrini and the council’s then Labour leadership of Tony Newman, Alison Butler and Simon Hall.
Negrini, Newman and Hall’s resignations as council staff or councillors came around the time of a hugely critical Report In The Public Interest by external auditors Grant Thornton which presaged the issuing of Croydon’s first Section 114 notice, an admission that the council was unable to deliver a balanced budget as required by law. Croydon has issued two more S114s since, including under Mayor Perry in 2022.
Less-than-dynamic duo: Kerswell welcomes Croydon’s first elected Mayor, Jason Perry, to the Town Hall in May 2022. Both failed to ‘fix the finances’
But under Kerswell, the council never managed to keep its spending in check, with the improvement and assurance panel, which was appointed by government in 2021, last April describing the council’s spending as “runaway”. Croydon overspent its budget in 2024-2025 by £30million, and was given a record bail-out loan of £136million by government earlier this year.
Kerswell’s solution? Spend millions more on “consultants” to make more cuts and reduce more services.
When the improvement panel’s time in Croydon was coming to an end, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government stepped in and, in July, appointed Commissioners to take over the running of the authority.
The move rendered Perry a lame duck mayor, and put Kerswell on borrowed time.
Another Grant Thornton report has just been published ahead of next week’s meeting of full council (the first to be held in four months), in which the auditors issued a formal warning requiring urgent action by the council’s leadership because “arrangements to achieve financial sustainability have deteriorated” in the past year.
Katharine Street sources have speculated for months that Mayor Perry was under pressure to find a way to ease Kerswell out of Fisher’s Folly, her position untenable with the appointment of Commissioners. The stumbling block was the political pain any pay-off might cause for Perry, with local elections coming up in May 2026.
Lead commissioner: Ged Curran, previously a council CEO in south London, was appointed in July
This week Kerswell was absent from Wednesday night’s council cabinet meeting and yesterday’s appointments sub-committee (to approve a director-level employee). It all fuelled the speculation around the inevitable.
Yesterday, Kerswell’s imminent departure was the chatter among delegates at a local government conference. Confirmation of her resignation came from senior council sources late last night.
In an indication of the paranoia and secrecy that stalks the Town Hall corridors in Croydon, opposition councillors – Labour, Green and LibDem – had not been advised of this significant development. Even senior Conservative councillors claimed to have no knowledge of Kerswell’s resignation last night.
Kerswell joins the stampede of senior council execs for the exits of Fisher’s Folly, following her hand-picked assistant CEO Elaine Jackson and finance director, Jane West, as well as Nazyeya “Naz” Hussain, the council official who was supposed to be responsible for planning and ultimately for the regeneration of the town centre.
In all, six senior council employees at director level or above have quit Croydon in the past few weeks. Kerswell brings that tally to seven, though she is thought to be the only one to have negotiated a juicy pay-off for herself.
Kerswell has some notoriety in local government circles for cashing in on her departures from senior jobs: in 2011, she scored a Negrini-esque £420,000 pay-out after 16 months at Kent County Council, and in April 2019, it is understood that Newham secured her departure as interim head of service with a more modest pay-off after barely nine months.
Mayor Perry and the council’s dynamic team in the propaganda bunker at Fisher’s Folly have been approached for comment, but had failed to respond by time of publication.
- Read Mayor Perry’s note to councillors confirming Kerswell’s resignation by clicking here
- Read Kerswell’s farewell message to council staff by clicking here: ‘I’ll miss heartfelt moments we have shared in our Tea Talks’
Read more: Now Kerswell’s deputy CEO joins the rush for council exits
Read more: Go West! Cash-strapped council’s finance chief is set to quit
Read more: £1,000 per day ‘Interim Adam’ was Kerswell’s personal pick
Read more: Council’s agency staff bill includes £726 per hour consultant
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
