At a meeting on Monday, Raynsford told Colin Inglis, leader of the council's new Labour administration, to accept one of three options or face government intervention.
The options are: the original plans laid down by the council's suspended chief executive Jim Brooks; the new plans drafted by Inglis, which sideline the five £100,000-a-year corporate directors recently appointed by Brooks; or new proposals currently being worked up by the corporate directors themselves.
The move follows Inglis' announcement last week that Brooks was being suspended for alleged misconduct and that the management reforms Brooks had just put in place were being scrapped (HT 6 June, page 9).
Raynsford said: "My concern is that the previous change that happened was the consequence of the Audit Commission report. Any further changes must address the concerns in that report to ensure a real recovery.
"The government won't flinch from intervening in failing authorities if it's necessary – but we don't want to be too heavy-handed."
Inglis has pledged to give the whole council time to consider the options before voting on them at the end of next month. He had previously hoped to push through his changes in a council cabinet meeting next Tuesday.
However, Inglis denied that he had received a telling-off from the minister: "We agreed that Hull had to end the introspective navel-gazing it has been involved in for the last year and take the difficult decisions on issues like housing the Lib Dems didn't manage to take."
The problems in Hull stem from a damning corporate governance report undertaken by the Audit Commission last year (HT 23 May 2002, page 1). This outlined a series of problems with the council's housing service, such as escalating rent arrears.
For the year up to his suspension, Brooks had been working on a new management structure at the council – which included splitting the housing department into strategic and management arm. His aim was to ensure that the re-inspection by the Audit Commission – due in two weeks – showed an improvement.
This week, Brooks hit back at the Labour administration, saying: "This trumped up piece of nonsense is just a distraction from Hull's problems. Meanwhile, I'm being paid £3000 a week to sit at home doing nothing."
The crisis has had an immediate effect on housing in Hull, with the cancellation of last Friday's scheduled meeting of the Partnership Liaison Board.
This board – chaired by Joseph Rowntree Foundation chairman Lord Richard Best – has been charged by the government with keeping Hull's recovery and housing strategy on track.
In a letter explaining the cancellation, Lord Best said he was taking advice on whether the new restructuring plans announced by Inglis "accord with current thinking on best practice".
The board will not meet for at least another six weeks.
Source
Housing Today
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