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Thursday 17 May 2018

Cabinet Roles in Brent Council

Looking through the Brent Cabinet papers for the forthcoming Cabinet meeting, I was struck that no one appears to have Lead Member for finance as their specified role.  That is extremely odd and probably unique in local government. 

Normally the finance lead is seen as one of the most important posts.  One might imagine that with continuing cuts coming through the Council budget even after years of Budget cuts it would be even more central.  Yet it is no one's specific task.  In my experience that tends to be a bad idea since not having a named person in charge will make it everyone's task and no one's.  There is a real risk of no proper direction and councillors just falling into a general blame culture.

The second thing that strikes me about this agenda is the thinness of it.   Just four reports immediately after an election where an incumbent administration has been re-elected.  That doesn't sound like hitting the ground running.  More just meandering along.

1 comment:

Martin Francis said...

I noticed that. In the past it has sometimes been the portfolio of the deputy leader but in this case she has nothing allocated to her at all. Perhaps Cllr Butt, though unnamed has the portfolio?

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