Bill Taylor looks more like the City boy he almost became than the district council chief executive he is. When we meet, the boss of West Lancashire DC is wearing a slick, pinstriped suit and trendy blue glasses. He also has a has a huge smile. In the first few moments of meeting, he has taken off three or four different regional accents before returning to his own rounded Scots voice. He is undoubtedly an entertainer at heart. Born in what he describes as one of the more deprived areas of Glasgow, he is a working class boy made good. His communist father had little time for education, and so he left school aged 15 to work as an apprentice engineer. He was a shop steward at 16. His education came later, when he lied his way into night school, claiming he had nine GCSEs so he could take A-levels. He studied economics and politics at Sunderland University. But despite the politics at home, and the political degree, he says: ‘Politics doesn’t interest me. I’ve worked under every type of political control, and it doesn’t matter to me.’ ‘I used to be involved in martial arts and boxing. There is a saying in boxing – ‘nuff respect. If you have ‘nuff respect for the democratic process, it doesn’t matter.’ Bill says he was ‘all set’ to start work as a broker in London’s Square Mile when a friend told him about a job working with disabled people in Strathclyde. And that last-minute change of heart altered the course of his career. From there it was the housing department at Walsall MBC, while completing an MBA at Birmingham University’s Inlogov. When Edinburgh turned Labour, he says he was one of the first appointments to the council, as head of the policy unit. After a stint at Rochdale as assistant chief executive, he went on to become assistant chief executive and head of HR at Harrogate, before joining West Lancashire in the top job five years ago. He says his secret as a chief executive is: ‘I know how to motivate ordinary working class people. ‘Being working class does motivate people. They can’t afford to fail.’ West Lancashire is, according to the Audit Commission, the best-improving district council in the North West. It is in the top 2% for CPA score in the country. Bill is still basking in the glory of winning the latest Customer Service Business Leader of the Year in the National Customer Service Awards. In the competition, he was up against private sector giants. He says: ‘It was the ultimate business accolade because it was about customer services. If we are not about customer services, then we’re not about anything. ‘Every council chief executive should study one of their Pis every Monday morning. They should look at their abandoned call rate. ‘We answer 98% of our calls to the council. I challenge anyone else in local government to meet that.’ Bill is no stranger to the private sector. Working at West Lancashire has given him the opportunity to gain experience of private sector work, too. He held the post of non-executive director of N Brown plc – a local firm – while he was chief executive of West Lancashire, so he has a good idea of the strengths of the sector. He was also given the chance to carry out some interim work, combining six months at Fylde DC with his current role. Bill believes his next role could find him shifting to the private sector, or to a job in the public sector at a national level. ‘Never say never, but I don’t imagine myself being chief executive of another local authority.’ But he is only too well aware of the differences between the public and private sectors. ‘In local authorities, one thing we hold close to our heart is accountability. The more accountable we are, the more difficult it is to move quickly. The private sector is quicker to step up to the plate, but it is not as good at accountability.’ n