An interim report into the upheaval at Nottingham’s New Deal for Communities partnership recommends that the city council should take a greater role in running the programme, finds Herpreet Kaur Grewal.
Over the last six months, the New Deal for Communities programme in Nottingham has been in turmoil. The upheaval started in December 2007 when Sam Tarff, then chief executive of the Neighbourhood Development Company that manages the programme, was suspended pending the outcome of an investigation (R&R, 4 January, p1).
That investigation – conducted by external solicitors commissioned by the NDC board – has now been completed. But its results, which have not been made public, now appear academic: Tarff’s suspension kicked off a chain of events that resulted in public authorities stepping in – and the board taking a step back.
In February Mark Holland, a policeman and NDC board member, resigned in protest at Tarff’s treatment (R&R, 15 February, p3). Later that month, vice-chair Bhagwant Tiwana was suspended due to what the board called “breaches of the code of conduct” (R&R, 22 February, p2). And the Department for Communities and Local Government decided that enough was enough, commissioning a neighbourhood renewal advisor to carry out a review of the NDC’s governance.
A full report on this internal review is still being prepared, according to the Government Office for the East Midlands (GOEM), but the adviser’s interim findings were obtained by Regeneration & Renewal last week – and they do not cover the NDC’s board or managers in glory. The three-page document states that the body is “irrevocably damaged” and has “coalesced into factions”. It describes the NDC as having an atmosphere of “distrust and entrenched positions, aggravated by insufficient transparency and a lack of shared aims”. Accusations about “conspiracies, personal power struggles, financial motivations and manipulation” are “common currency”, the report says.
These issues, the report finds, make the NDC “unlikely” to become stable enough to deliver the programme without “significant change”. It also raises concerns that the NDC’s decision-making procedures might not have been followed correctly, leading to a risk that the agency might have been acting illegally; this, it says, could have “severe consequences”.
Noting that both Mark Holland and Roger Williams, the representative from the local primary care trust, resigned criticising the independent chair, the report says that this was “bound to undermine public confidence in the board”. Meanwhile, it says, the company’s senior management team all signed a statement in support of the suspended Tarff and criticised the chair, Narinder Sharma.
Sharma told Regeneration & Renewal: “As an independent chair, I have attempted to represent the views of a range of stakeholders including residents. I will continue to do that.” And last week Mohammed Azim, co-opted board director of the NDC, said that he thought Sharma is a “very good” chair and that “if it was up to me, he would remain chair”. However, the report recommends the appointment of a council representative to replace Sharma as chair, along with “refreshment” of the board.
Matters came to a head early last week, when a council spokesman warned that unless the current situation was resolved, the Government could withdraw the NDC’s remaining £10 million of funding. Within days, a meeting between Nottingham City Council, GOEM and the board directors of the NDC decided that the board would stand back from running the project.
As well as replacing the chair with a city council director, the interim report made a set of recommendations including that the board should be trained in equalities issues, that the chief executive be offered mentoring support, and that the selection method and role of the chair should be reviewed.
Holland, who was on the NDC’s Standards Committee, says he is glad the recommendations of the governance review look likely to be taken forward. “The recommendations in the report seem appropriate,” he said. “It remains to be seen whether they will be honoured in full.” The council now says that the board have agreed that all review recommendations ought to be implemented.
Sam Tarff was the chair of the NDC Network, the umbrella body for the country’s 39 community regeneration partnerships, and was widely credited for leading the team that raised the programme’s performance rating from “poor” to “excellent”. But his return to such a “faction” – dominated environment would be difficult – even given a greater role by the council, as suggested in the interim report.
At any rate, the NDC now has a new – albeit interim – chief executive (R&R, 23 May, p1). Stephen Lord has 25 years’ experience as a director in the private and public sectors, and has worked on regeneration schemes in various UK cities. As he begins work in Nottingham, his greatest task will be to create unity from division.
NDCs IN THE NEWS
In 2003, the chief executive of Ocean NDC in east London was sacked for gross misconduct and in 2004 its chair resigned. In 2006, residents rejected housing stock transfer to the NDC, scuppering refurbishment plans. Then the Government said funding should be withheld unless a new board was appointed.
The Government disbanded Birmingham-based Aston Pride NDC’s board in 2003 after it was revealed that it had spent little of its budget. Birmingham City Council was also accused of withholding information relevant to an inquiry into the body’s governance.
In 2003, it emerged that Braunstone NDC in Leicester could lose its funding from Leicester Housing Association. The NDC won back control of its budget in 2004 after management improvements.