After working for two decades as the voice of the country's small business community at the Federation of Small Businesses, I decided to switch to the public sector. In 2003, I put my name on the ballot paper and was elected as a councillor. Fast forward to 2010 and I was voted in as leader of the council. All of this was in the leafy south west London borough of Merton – a lesser-known authority compared with town hall behemoths like those in Leeds or Manchester.
During my first days at Crown House, the imposing semi-circular council headquarters overlooking Morden tube, I was determined to bring a more business-like mindset to the council – one that valued innovation and enterprise. Things fell into place for me one evening. Driving home, something caught my eye: at a red light, I noticed a white van ahead of me. On its livery were the words ‘CHAS Approved'. An old council press release came to mind on the importance of health and safety on construction sites and a small accreditation scheme the council was running, called the ‘Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme' or CHAS for short.
