HCA chief executive takes £50k pay cut to move to communities department
Sir Bob: ‘CLG will be high-performing’
Sir Bob Kerslake has told Inside Housing he wants to fashion a high-performing Whitehall department as he takes a pay cut to to become one of the UK’s top civil servants.
The Homes and Communities Agency this week announced Sir Bob was quitting as chief executive after almost two years in charge. He takes over as permanent secretary at the Communities and Local Government department on 1 November.
Sir Bob admitted the department, which has reponsibility for housing, faced a ‘big set of changes’ which he hoped to implement to ‘create a high performing government department’.
The former chief executive of Sheffield Council singled out implementing the decentralisation and localism bill as a key challenge.
‘For me, as someone who worked in local government, it’s an interesting and exciting agenda,’ he said.
The move sees Sir Bob’s pay drop more than £50,000 from his £223,000 basic salary at the HCA to £170,000 at the CLG. He will earn up to £19,999 less than his predecessor, Peter Housden, and less than some of his staff, including director general for housing Richard McCarthy.
The news sparked speculation over who will now run the HCA (see below: Runners and riders). The agency is looking among its 12 existing directors for an interim but would not say when it would find a permanent head to replace the outgoing chief executive.
‘We need to look at the outcome of the comprehensive spending review [in October] to see what our budget is, which will have an effect on the operation of the agency,’ said a spokesperson for the agency.
Sir Bob declared the HCA ‘has had its future confirmed [by ministers]’ but added his successor faced a ‘big task’.
Alistair McIntosh, chief executive of the Housing Quality Network, said he was unsurprised that Sir Bob had landed the role as permanent secretary at the CLG: ‘How could you not be impressed by Kerslake and put an experienced driver in the car?’
Runners and riders: who could fill the HCA hot seat?
Joanne Roney
Wakefield Council’s first female chief executive since July 2008. She was executive director for housing and direct services, and then for neighbourhoods and community care at Sheffield Council where she worked with Sir Bob Kerslake.
Peter Marsh
Named chief executive of the Tenant Services Authority after less than a year as deputy chief executive of former regulator the Housing Corporation. If the TSA and HCA are to merge, could this be the time to do it? Word on the street is probably not, and this would be an unlikely choice.
Trevor Beattie
Director of place making at the HCA. Mr Beattie headed the agency’s set-up team, seconded from his role as director of corporate strategy at English Partnerships. He survived the HCA’s recent money-saving director cull.
Eamonn Boylan
Formerly deputy chief executive of the HCA, he left earlier this year to run Stockport Council. He joined the HCA during its formation in summer 2008.
Interim picks
HCA east of England director Terry Fuller and east midlands director, Margaret Allen.
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Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 10/09/2010 9:17 am
A hint of the Augean stables, I think, in the face of years of entrenched mediocrity . . . he can do it, though, if if anybody can.
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Melvin Bone | 10/09/2010 9:40 am
They just need to divert a couple of rivers and the jobs a good'un...
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