The standards bearer

The new head of the local government Improvement and Development Agency has an exemplary reputation in local government circles. Bundred's seven years in Camden's top job saw him pull it out of a financial mess and turn it into a top performer: the IDeA has presented Camden with more Beacon best-practice awards than any other council. Understandably, Bundred is proud of what he achieved, but he stresses that any housing department can learn from Camden's success story and emulate it: "I arrived at Camden at a time when it was not a well-regarded local authority and was struggling with service-performance issues," he says. "I left it in a position where it was justifiably one of the best in the country. The key messages are the basic ones – the importance of talented, committed staff working within clear accountable frameworks and good performance management systems."

The early days at Camden are still firmly engraved on Bundred's memory and this influences the way he thinks about his IDeA role. The IDeA was set up by the Local Government Association as an executive to complement the former organisation's policy role, receiving half of its funding from its parent, and earning the other half from consultancy services and commercial ventures. It addresses the tendency of geographical boundaries between councils to become physical barriers, blocking the circulation of best practice and good ideas; it is the local government equivalent of a networking event, tutor and online advice service all rolled into one.

Interviewed just a week after taking up his new job, Bundred stresses that its too early to predict the changes he will make. But his priorities are ensuring a strong response to the comprehensive performance assessment, continuing the IDeA's role in developing staff and constructing career ladders, and challenging the "poverty of ambition" that has seen housing and other departments aim for "good enough" rather than excellence.

He singles out peer reviews, a service whereby local authorities can study themselves in a mirror held up by comparable councils, as one of IDeA's flagship policies.

"If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it's very flattering that the Audit Commission chose to embrace the peer element in the first wave of the CPA," he says. So far, IDeA has offered peer reviews at corporate level, but there are plans to extend it into specific service areas, such as housing.

Bundred's experience at Camden has left him with a particular desire to support councils that are trying to deliver services without the oxygen of political support. Hull and Hackney are his examples. "Many authorities designated as poor or weak [in the CPA] are characterised by dysfunctional politics and an absence of trust between members and officers," he says. "Local authorities are more than a constellation of services. If the political culture isn't right, managerial solutions won't succeed."

Bundred arrived at Camden in 1992 as director of finance, after similar roles at Hackney and London's Birkbeck College.

Councils are more than a constellation of services. If the political culture isn’t right, managerial solutions won’t succeed

But he has also experienced life on the other side of the political fence, as a former Labour member of the Greater London Council for Islington North. His extracurricular appointments – at the Higher Education Funding Council for England and on Rethinking Construction's local government taskforce – have a common denominator in finance and efficiency savings.

Bundred has developed a reputation for focusing on achievement – a focus that some people believe leaves little room for humour. "He seems very dry, almost humourless, but I think it's shyness," a councillor said at a recent IDeA conference. "He does have a sense of humour, it just doesn't come out very often." At Camden, says one councillor, "he made no attempt to explain technical things. It was only because of the Local Government Act that he had to be civil to us."

In person, Bundred is indeed more businesslike than affable; he is unsmiling and answers questions stiffly, with no inclination to reveal anything of the person behind the two-dimensional information on his CV: "I keep my private life separate from my work," he says firmly.

As former chief of a borough that managed the Audit Commission double whammy for housing performance, an ultra-tough stance on antisocial behaviour and a housing PFI pathfinder, it's likely that housing will play an important part on Bundred's agenda. But Camden Labour member Gerry Harrison offers a peek at another side to Bundred that suggests he also has an undeclared personal interest in housing issues. Harrison belongs to a group of councillors keen to support Irish housing associations operating in north London. He explains: "Bundred is second-generation Irish like myself, and was extremely supportive when we set up an Irish needs conference at the town hall."

The IDeA's most high-profile initiative is the Beacon Council scheme, which carries IdeA's own mission statement in its genes. "Its very existence promotes a culture of learning and challenges the insularity of local government," he says. Next year, housing departments will have several opportunities to shine their lights – the round-five beacon themes include benefits administration, crime and disorder partnerships, housing renewal, and Supporting People.

Critics, though, note that while beacon status was originally intended to be the passport to a golden age of "freedoms and flexibilities" for local authorities, this function has now been usurped by the CPA; and that councils expend considerable time and energy on their bids, but only get to put the beacon logo on their letterheads for 12 months. Bundred is keen to ensure the scheme resists charges of tokenism, referring to a Cabinet Office review and "having beacon themes running for three years."