A new body set up to guide Liverpool Council after years of trouble is still yet to have details of how it will work laid out.
In August, former Levelling Up Secretary Greg Clark MP confirmed that as well as further expansion of government intervention into the crisis-hit city council, a new panel would be set up to lead it out of a Whitehall imposed intervention.
The panel is to be chaired by Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of Liverpool City Region and it is anticipated he will be joined by Sir Howard Bernstein, former Manchester City Council chief executive, and ex-Leeds Council leader Judith Blake.
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Mr Rotheram told the ECHO that work was underway to establish how the panel would look but progress remained slow. He said: “What obviously happened, it was Greg Clark, who announced that he wanted to do something that's never been done before anywhere.
“Instead of even more commissioners, it would separate the functions of the council and where the city, not the city council, needs to go in a direction. Obviously, myself and Mayor Joanne Anderson were interested in this as a way forward.”
Mr Clark was replaced by Simon Clarke for six weeks during Liz Truss’ brief premiership who Mr Rotheram said “came in and literally didn’t do anything.” He added: “I think he thought he was going to be there as an interim and he just sat on stuff.”
Previous Secretary of State Michael Gove returned to the department following the appointment of Rishi Sunak to Downing Street, who the Metro Mayor has met with in a bid to get the terms of reference of the panel off the ground. He added: “I think now we've come to an agreement on who does what, and who pays for what.”
Mr Rotheram said in his discussions with the Surrey Heath Conservative MP that Blackpool had been used as a potential example to follow as to how the panel may work. He said: “He gave an example of Blackpool and they had what's called the deep dive, they looked into the issues.
“In Blackpool, they found something that was stopping some regeneration. The government then put the money in because they'd found it and the whole project went forward.
“That was of specific interest to me, because if the government's a part of this deep dive, it's ours, we're doing it and they bought into it, then if we identify something, we'll be able to get them forward.”
The Metro Mayor said a similar exercise in Liverpool would likely take months but it would not be a case of “doing handouts, we’re not doing ‘giz some money.’” He said: “The terms of reference haven't been signed off, but we know the structure.”
Regarding the other members of the panel, Mayor Rotheram said he is hopeful Sir Howard will still be involved.
He added: “Howard is still in the frame but he said to me six months ago he would let us know by the end of the year and it's the end of the year now, but I think they're still looking to engage Howard.”
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