My friend Jonathan Swallow, who has died aged 63 after suffering from motor neurone disease, played an influential role in trying to hold back the tide of privatisation in local government.
He did this by helping to establish, in 1991, a consultancy called Competition Advice, for which he travelled the country informing public sector and trade union clients on the best ways of managing the tendering out of public services. He used the expertise he had gained over many years working in senior management in local government to try to protect services and maintain the working conditions of council employees.
Catering assistants, cleaners and road sweepers were among the many who owed their jobs to him and the retention of their terms and conditions. Partly through his efforts the unions were able to establish that the principle of a Transfer of Undertakings should be applied to public sector workers if their jobs moved to a different employer.
Born in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, Jonathan was the son of two French teachers, Sybil (nee Parker) and Albert. After Ilkley grammar school he was awarded a scholarship to Hertford College, Oxford, in 1971. There he read philosophy, politics and economics, before taking a master’s degree in politics at Strathclyde University.
Beginning in 1976 as a graduate trainee at Ealing council, in west London, he moved on to work in various senior officer roles for Islington before returning to Ealing. In 1983 he was appointed as a principal officer at Birmingham city council and was then given the corporate role of executive assistant to the chief executive, a job that involved a great deal of troubleshooting. His ability to find a way out of a tight corner was much admired.
In his last two years at Birmingham, Jonathan worked on secondment with the Association of Direct Labour Organisations and the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, helping them to set up Competition Advice. He was appointed as head of the consultancy and was responsible for managing a team of associates.
Jonathan also worked on a retainer for more than 30 years alongside trade unions in Northern Ireland, both to support the peace process and, eventually, to ensure that the Good Friday agreement took on board equality and human rights considerations.
Outside work he was a keen chess player and lover of classical music.
