Where are they now, continued. “Rewards for Failure”

We have noted that there has been a rather large turnover of chief execs under the leadership of Mayor Fiaz.

We reflected on the early departure of Abu Gbago, whose first stint as a chief executive might not be seen as a resounding success for the burghers of Newham , but was nonetheless lucrative for Ms Gbago.

Failure is no bar to future employment as there seems to be a revolving door from one highly paid post to another. 

We had earlier reflected on another Newham chief exec, one Katherine Kerswell. Ms Kerswell was engaged as an interim chief exec and seems to have left with £200,000 for six months’ work. This was after she took £590,000 from Kent County Council after 20 months in post.

Ms Kerswell left Newham to lead Nottingham Council, another council which went to on to become bankrupt.

She migrated to a role at Croydon Council for which she was paid £192,474 pa as chief exec, (increased to £204,000). Croydon, readers may recall, was another council with some financial problems! They “went bankrupt three times in five years”, and Kerswell’s role became somewhat redundant when the government sent in the commissioners  in July 2025. 

In words that will seem eerily similar to those used in respect of Mayor Fiaz and Newham Council a specially commissioned report “described Croydon as “dysfunctional” and blamed “poor governance by the former political leadership of the council” and “correspondingly poor managerial leadership” for the council’s financial collapse.” (from Inside Croydon.) Kerswell is reported to be taking a pay-off of under £95,000 to aid her on her way.

This is how the Inside Croydon article begins.

The article notes that Kerswell failed to reduce the council’s £1.4bn debt. 

We have no problems paying exceptional people to do a demanding job. It is somewhat galling to see that those people who fail in their jobs get paid handsomely to leave while those who do a good job get no special reward.

They get paid to do their job, and that is as it should be.

There is something rotten in local government finance where failure makes people into millionaires, while taxpayers are lumbered with the debts and someone else has to clear up after them.

For those staff who receive rather humbler salaries, the sight of their former bosses walking away with (metaphorical) suitcases filled with cash while they struggle by with minimal pay rises, (or none), must sap their morale somewhat.

Clearly, the contracts that some of those in top jobs have negotiated are advantageous to them. When the incumbent fails, the taxpayer foots the bill. Perhaps Mayors and councillors should be subject to surcharges for agreeing to these terms. Or maybe Westminster might simply cap them.

There is a problem when failure is more profitable than success.