The commissioners are accountable to the Secretary of State and will report regularly on the council’s progress towards recovery.
The commissioners will work with senior council officers to deliver an agreed recovery and action plan at pace.
The commissioners appointed by the Secretary of State are:
- Sir Tony Redmond, Lead Commissioner
- Richard Carr, Managing Director Commissioner
- Carol Culley OBE, Commissioner
- Mervyn Greer, Commissioner
Lead Commissioner: Sir Tony Redmond
Tony has a long and substantial career in public service. He commenced his work in the public sector for Liverpool City Council where he ultimately became Chief Accountant. Subsequently he was appointed to the role of Deputy Finance Director at Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, and then Finance Director and Deputy Chief Executive of Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, as well as Treasurer to the Merseyside Police Authority.
His next local authority was the London Borough of Harrow, where he held posts of Chief Executive and Director of Finance, as well as Treasurer to the West London Waste Authority. Following this he was appointed as Chairman and Chief Executive of the Commission for Local Administration in England and Local Government Ombudsman.
Since leaving the Ombudsman role, Tony has been a Local Government Boundary Commissioner, Treasurer of UNICEF UJ and Chair of the Consumer Council for Water in London and the South East. He has recently complete a government assignment to examine Local Audit in England (‘The Redmond Review’) and undertook a three-year review of Nottingham City Council as Chair of its Improvement and Assurance Board. In December 2023, he took on the role of Lead Commissioner at Woking Borough Council.
He is a former President of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and he was Knighted for services to Local Government in 2011.
Read Sir Tony Redmond's appointment letter, 13 December 2023
Managing Director Commissioner: Richard Carr
In his substantive career, Richard worked for seven unitary, county, district and London borough councils, including East Cambridgeshire District Council, Aylesbury Vale District Council, Wolverhampton City Council, and between 2009 and 2020, Central Bedfordshire Council as Chief Executive.
Between 2017 and 2020, Richard was also the Senior Responsible Officer for the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care System (ICS).
In 2020, Richard was asked to support the Department of Health and Social Care in its response to the Covid pandemic, which he did until 2022 as Regional Convenor for the South West. During that time, he led a team supporting local partners in their efforts to protect and support the region’s five million residents, including through the fastest roll out of the vaccination programme in the country.
Since 2022, Richard has undertaken a number of interim management and coaching assignments, including with the City of Edinburgh Council and most recently, Colchester City Council where he has led the authority’s group of wholly-owned trading companies as Managing Director. Richard is also the Managing Director of the East Midlands Development Company (EM DevCo).
Recently, Richard has become the Senior Non-Executive Director of the East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT).
Richard is an accredited peer for the Local Government Association’s sector-led improvement programme and has led Corporate Peer Challenges in Northumbria, Devon, Stockport, and Shropshire.
Read Richard Carr's appointment letter, 13 December 2023
Commissioner: Carol Culley OBE
Carol's most recent role was Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer at Manchester City Council. Within this role she was responsible for financial management, capital programme delivery, corporate property and facilities management, HROD, revenues and benefits, customer services, procurement and commissioning and internal audit, health and safety and risk management.
As well as being the authority's S151 Officer, she led on a number of corporate priorities, including climate change, delivery of the 'Our Town Hall' and 'Factory International' projects and the council's internal transformation programme.
Carol’s other previous experience included her role as Deputy City Treasurer with the responsibilities of finance and performance and ICT and was a member of the Health and Social Care Devolution Team. Previously she was the Assistant Chief Executive overseeing finance and performance.
She has acquired several accredited professional qualifications for her work in finance including, Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), diploma in management: certificate in commissioning and procurement. She is also a LGA Core Advisor.
In addition, she is a trustee for a number of organisations including the Greater Manchester Education Trust, Manchester Central and CIPFA, and also Junior Vice President of CIPFA and Chair of the CIPFA Public Financial Management Board.
Read Carol Culley's appointment letter, 1 May 2024
Commissioner: Mervyn Greer
Mervyn is the long-term serving Director of Kier Group, a leading UK construction and infrastructure services company.
Prior to working at Kier Group, he held the role of Development Director at Accord Plc, a local authority highways construction and maintenance company, and Head of Local Government and Facilities Management Consultancy at Amey, a leading infrastructure services and engineering company.
In 2016 Mervyn was engaged as an accredited commercial assessor for the Government Commercial Function development programme. In 2018 he was appointed by the Cabinet Office as Crown Representative with responsibility for the relationships with strategic suppliers to Government and Crown Representative to the Local Government Association.
In 2020 Mervyn was appointed by the Secretary of State as an inspector for the statutory review of Liverpool City Council.