This was awkward: Jason Perry, the politician who promised to clawback money from the massive golden handshake paid to the previous council CEO, in October found himself overseeing a pay-off to Katherine Kerswell, as she resigned after five years as chief exec.
PLUS: pub closures, the exodus from the Whitgift Centre, and the explosive new book which has a whole chapter about Inside Croydon
OCTOBER
Kerswell takes another pay-off as she quits as council’s CEO
Perry’s pay-off: council CEO Katherine Kerswell was paid £50,000 to not work her three-month notice period
Inside Croydon was first with the news again – we got our report out ahead of piss-poor Perry’s formal announcement to councillors – as we revealed that Katherine Kerswell, the council chief executive since 2020, had quit her job.
Though not before Kerswell “negotiated” (read: demanded) a pay-off equivalent to three months’ salary to ensure that she did not work out her three-month notice period.
This was the surest sign yet that the government-appointed Commissioners were taking control of Croydon Council, leaving Jason Perry as a lame-duck mayor through until next May’s local elections.
The issue around the £50,000 golden handshake paid to Kerswell was hugely embarrassing to Perry.
In August 2020, Perry had been a member of the appointments committee which rubber-stamped the decision to pay Kerswell’s predecessor as council CEO, Jo “Negreedy” Negrini, a £437,000 settlement for her to pack her Gucci briefcase and vacate the building (sources close to Perry say that he voted against the Negrini payment, but was in the minority on a sub-sommittee chaired by Labour’s Tony Newman).
When campaigning to get elected as mayor in 2021, Perry claimed that he would take action to claw back at least some of the Negrini pay-off.
To date, Perry has managed to recover the grand total of
£0.00
from Jo Negrini.
- And in one of our follow-ups, we looked over Kerswell’s chequered 30-year career in local councils: The Kerswell Affair: Croydon is worse off after CEO’s five years. The bit about yoghurt should be enough to put you off your breakfast…
Also in October…
While Perry gawped in wonder at Westfield’s kiosks in Allders, other town centre businesses were closing by the week:
Two more Croydon town centre pubs pull down the shutters
Indeed, the number of businesses closing in the Whitgift Centre had increased by 50% on the previous year:
Figures show how exodus from Whitgift Centre is speeding up
And iC had photographs from the gruesome scene when a young man fell from the footbridge over the town centre street market:
Air ambulance sent to Surrey Street after man falls from bridge
PICK OF THE PODCASTS: October saw the publication of The Fraud, the explosive investigation into how Morgan McSweeney, Croydon MP Steve Reed and others accumulated almost £1million in donations, but never declared them properly to the Electoral Commission, using the money to install Keir Starmer as Labour leader and, ultimately, Prime Minister.
Inside Croydon even merited an entire chapter devoted to the website and how sinister, shadowy figures organised a malicious and illegal hack of the site’s emails and Twitter feed to access details of Labour councillors and use the information against them.
Andrew Fisher interviewed author Paul Holden about The Fraud and the threats and barriers he encountered while writing it.
You can listen to this Andrew Fisher Interview on Spotify by clicking here.
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- If you missed our review of January 2025’s news, take a look at this: That was the year that was: Inside Croydon’s pick of 2025
- For February’s top news stories, have a look at this: Purley Pool, porkie pies and a busted budget
- For the highlights, and council lowlights, from March, click here: Council’s closed doors, Selhurst security, Bridge to Nowhere
- Check out what was making the news Inside Croydon in April by clicking here
- While in May 2025, we were mostly watching football: After 120 years, the Eagles live the dream at Wembley cup final
- June 2025 was When council boss blocked staff from reading Inside Croydon
- In July, Inside Croydon exposed how Croydon’s cash-strapped council was paying consultant £726 PER HOUR
- Fly-tipped mattresses that the council refused to touch, library books discared all over a street in Broad Green, more buckets than businesses in the Whitgift Centre, and Reform’s dead candidate for mayor. All to be found on Inside Croydon in August 2025
- In September 2025, we were the first to report the latest housing scandal to hit Croydon, and the council
- In November and December, we even had cabinet minister Steve Reed retweeting links to Inside Croydon news reports, which included coverage of the spaghetti restaurant named the best in the country
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