Boris Johnson has launched his mayoral reign with a top level shake-up at the beleaguered London Development Agency. Herpreet Kaur Grewal examines the people who will shape its immediate future.

Last week the chairman and chief executive of the London Development Agency, the capital’s economic regeneration body, were asked to leave their posts by new mayor Boris Johnson.

Johnson has nominated former chief executive of Westminster Council Peter Rogers and businessman Harvey McGrath respectively to fill the roles on an interim basis. These nominations are expected to be approved by the LDA’s board shortly, according to a spokesman.

Johnson has also established a ‘forensic audit panel’ to examine financial management in the LDA and the Greater London Authority.

Both moves follow allegations over the past five months of mismanagement in the awarding of LDA grants to community organisations. Police are investigating six organisations that received grants from the LDA. These allegations against the LDA may have damaged previous mayor Ken Livingstone’s chances of re-election.

Jonny Popper, director of the London Communications Agency (LCA) says: “Changes were inevitable following the issues raised during the campaign. A new chair and chief executive will need to give the LDA a clear role and vision.”

The audit panel, to be chaired by former Daily Telegraph editor Patience Wheatcroft, will examine the allegations against the LDA, how the body detects and handles possible conflicts of interest and how it monitors the use of grants it makes.

Some feel that the LDA has been unfairly maligned by the allegations. According to a report by public watchdog the Audit Commission, published last month, the agency performed well in “managing and spending within its available resources”.

It showed that the scale of its work linked to the Olympics had also increased and had been handled well. The report said that the LDA had also helped close the gap between unemployment in deprived areas of London and the capital as a whole.

But in the past the agency has been unsettled in its senior ranks. Manny Lewis replaced Michael Ward (now chief executive of the British Urban Regeneration Association) when he left in 2004. In 2003 the LDA also lost its chairman George Barlow and two internal reports criticised the body’s internal structures. Regeneration & Renewal reported that Ward’s departure had been down to internal politics. London Assembly Conservative member Eric Ollerenshaw said that the Government had “totally undermined” the LDA and showed a lack of trust in the agency by taking steps to set up an urban development corporation in east London (R&R, 9 January 2004, p1).

Stephen Joseph, deputy chief executive of the Thames Gateway London Partnership (currently seconded to the East of England Development Agency), remains upbeat. He thinks Harvey McGrath is a valuable addition to the LDA.

McGrath is chair of the East London Business Alliance, a partnership involved in the social and economic regeneration of east London, and knows how to link the benefits of business expansion with the needs of community projects, says Joseph, and his appointment shows the mayor is not hiring based simply on party political reasons. “McGrath’s appointment is clearly based on merits and this clearly bodes well for other appointments (that the mayor may make),” Joseph says.

Wheatcroft, however, has clear Conservative Party links – her husband is a Tory councillor.
But Iain Tuckett, group director of social enterprise Coin Street Community Builders, says it’s too early to predict what the new appointments will mean in the longer term. “A lot of LDA staff felt frustrated” by the bureaucracy of the agency but “I don’t think we have seen anything that’s much of a surprise”, says Tuckett. “The real test will be what gets put in place” (in terms of policy).

HARVEY MCGRATH

McGrath is chairman of business campaign group London First and vice-chair of the mayor of London’s Skills and Employment Board, responsible for the adult skills strategy in the capital. He is also a director of Gateway to London, the inward investment agency for the Thames Gateway. McGrath was formerly chairman of Man Group plc, the London-based FTSE 100 fund manager and futures broker. He joined Man Group in 1980 from Chase Manhattan Bank. He is also chair of the East London Business Alliance, a partnership of businesses engaged in the social and economic regeneration of East London.

PETER ROGERS

Rogers is the former chief executive of City of Westminster Council, where he was employed for more than ten years. He left the post earlier this year. He was previously deputy chief executive and director of resources at the council. Before moving to Westminster, Rogers carried out several roles at the West Midlands Travel Group, rising to the position of commercial director. He is a member of the Central London Partnership Executive, which is the focus for public-private partnership in central London. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.

PATIENCE WHEATCROFT

Patience Wheatcroft is a non-executive director of Barclays bank and investors Shaftesbury. She was editor of the Sunday Telegraph for 18 months until she resigned last September. For nine years previously she was business & City editor of The Times. Prior to that she was deputy city editor of the Mail On Sunday. In 1988 she and her husband launched and edited Retail Week, later selling the publication for a profit. Wheatcroft is also a member of the British Olympic Association Advisory Board, the UK/India Round Table, and sits on the Council of the Royal Albert Hall.