The new chief executive of Leeds City Council, previously head of Yorkshire Forward RDA, tells Michael Burton how local government literally changed the course of his life
The regional development agencies could have survived had they addressed their democratic deficit according to the chief executive of one of the UK’s largest city councils. And he should know; before taking on the helm of Leeds City Council last month, his first role in local government, Tom Riordan was chief executive of the RDA Yorkshire Forward.So does he believe the demise of the RDAs was on the cards the moment Labour lost power? He says that ‘my own expectation was there would still be Northern RDAs but slimmed down. If we’d cracked the democracy issue they might have survived.’
He adds: ‘I can understand where [CLG secretary] Eric Pickles is coming from. Someone strives to be elected then discovers power is in the hands of unelected organisations. That had to be corrected but the RDAs got swept away in a tsunami rather than simply correcting the democratic deficit. The political drivers were too strong.’
Despite Leeds being his first council job, the Northallerton-born Tom Riordan had an earlier very personal connection with local authorities. For up to the age of four he was in care, his parents having mental health problems (his father has since died and his mother is in a care home). He discovered the full details 18 months ago when he asked to see his files at North Yorkshire CC.
He is clear he wants to reveal this aspect of his past to emphasise how his own life was positively changed by local government and explains: ‘I was in and out of care until I was four and only recently found out the details though my parents told me when I was in my twenties. When I was five my grandmother finished work and she became a constant in our family so I went back home. I’m a good example of someone for whom the care system worked. Eighteen months ago I decided to find out what happened and got my file from North Yorkshire CC which was very professional about it. I learned about the social worker’s job and the importance of what was written down.’
It was an extraordinary start to a life that took him to Oxford and to Whitehall’s corridors of power. He describes it as ‘a fork in the road’ which ‘could have gone wrong but turned out to be a force for good’ and he faced another such fork when he was at school. ‘My school was a comprehensive and it was exceptional to have kids going to Oxford. I would never have applied but my history teacher advised me to apply to Oxford and gave me special tuition. If that teacher hadn’t asked me I’d never have applied. It was another fork in the road moment.’
He was accepted onto a history course and his core subject was the effect of the American revolution in England. He recalls: ‘Oxford gives you a passport to opportunity. At first I was completely intimidated but soon gained confidence. Oxford gave me that self-confidence. It was a rigorous course with exams in the first term and finals were a week of exams and no coursework.’
When he graduated in 1989 his late father, then a careers adviser, suggested he try the civil service fast stream. ‘I was thinking of doing a PhD but decided against it. I passed the entrance exam and got in and the first post was at the Department of the Environment. I actually asked about the Home Office but was advised to take the DoE – another fork in the road moment.’
He recalls that his first job when he joined ‘was in the team doing the environment White Paper after the Rio summit. My bosses were Richard Shaw (later Surrey CC chief) and Robin Young. I was also in the community charge capping team working for Paul Rowsell. I got promoted quickly, becoming the youngest Grade 7 in the department at the age of 25. I ended up representing the UK government on bio-diversity at an international conference. It was an easy brief; I was told “just say no to anything that costs money”.’
After an MBA he decided to return home to the North. ‘The civil service is a great career but has a particular culture and I wanted to move back up north and get closer to the ground. The civil service is stacked full of intelligent people, a rich seam of bright people. The problem is they’re tasked against each other and against protagonists like local government. Whitehall is a big game of chess. You’re playing against other departments. The poor old taxpayer doesn’t actually appear on the board.
The culture is too obsessed about structure and process and not enough about performance delivery.’
In 1997 he headed to Leeds to set up the new RDA, Yorkshire Forward, first as project manager, then deputy and finally chief executive in 2006.
Despite having spent his career in Whitehall and with the RDA he worked closely with local government and soon learned the RDAs could not achieve their aims in isolation. ‘There were brilliant examples of working with councils and I got a good impression of local government.
At Yorkshire Forward I spent the first three years thinking we could do it all ourselves and soon realised you couldn’t achieve real traction without local government’s input.’
He adds: ‘The RDAs in the north have made huge achievements such as record foreign investment, physical regeneration in the big cities and response to big shocks like floods, foot and mouth and the recession but we did it with local government.’
He argues that the RDAs have built up considerable expertise and there is a danger this will be dissipated before their replacement local enterprise partnerships can be created. ‘There are things we are being asked to do with LEPs where we have the skills in the old RDAs. We need to look at the TUPE implications of RDAs so we don’t lose that talent.’ He also warns that the new regional growth fund’s budget is half that of the RDAs and could see its impact muted as a result.
‘The RGF is only for two years and that’s a worry. It needs a longer life. I hope it won’t pepperpot but it’s really a replacement for RDA budgets which were £2bn, mainly skewered to the North, while the RGF has £1bn.’
After being appointed at Leeds City he completed a handover period with outgoing chief Paul Rogerson. His priority inevitably is the budget but also to develop the city’s role as engine of the regional economy. ‘The single most important issue is setting the budget. It will be a case of more for less. The key thing is not to resort to compulsory redundancies on a large scale, but work with staff and unions to minimise them and you have to come up with different ways of doing things. Change takes time – it will be a three year period. I also want to recast the relationship with business, the third sector and the taxpayer. And Whitehall in turn has to recast its relationship with local government.’
He concludes: ‘Leeds has huge pulling power. Coming into this job makes you realise – as I know myself – what impact you can have in local government.
