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Richmond upon Thames LBC chief executive, Gillian Norton, tells Heather Jameson about her past in the Greater London Council – and a future of cost cutting in her council. Richmond upon Thames chief executive, Gillian Norton, may have spent most of her career in the capital, but she grew up in the North East. After taking her school examinations early, she ended up at Hull University – at the tender age of 17. The staff there were, in those days, not quite sure what to do with someone so young at university. When she left, there were several options on the cards as a career. She ‘flirted with marketing', and ‘loved writing', but it was finally the Greater London Council (GLC) which landed Gillian with a job – much like a few other chief executives and senior staff on the London circuit. In all, Gillian spent 10 years at County Hall. She says: ‘I loved it. It was a fantastic place to work.' During her time at the GLC, Gillian also studied for an MBA at Henley. She worked in the office of the-then director general of the GLC, Jim Swaffield. When he left, it was her intention to leave too – but she agreed to settle in the new boss, Maurice Stonefrost first. But, she ‘fell into staying', and she was there until the end of the GLC, dealing with ‘a lot of the abolition' in 1986. Next came Woking – a relatively-small district council following the giant of the capital city. ‘I went into Woking to do policy, personnel and PR,' a mixed bag which highlights the diversity of working in a smaller organisation. ‘When I got there, going from a massive place to a tiny authority – it was very different. There was lots to do and it was a very ambitious authority.' Gillian went on to Wokingham - ‘just as the county debate was happening'. In the end, all the district councils got unitary status – aided and abetted by Tory John Redwood, who was the local MP.' Finally, Gillian arrived in Richmond upon Thames LBC – back in the capital. There was a lot of difficulties at the authority at that time. There was a poor social services department, and poor Ofsted results. ‘Ofsted judged the education department as grade five. Grade six is intervention.' Gillian continues: ‘In those days, the performance regime was not as clear as it is now. There were no performance management systems in place at the authority.' Now, the in-house teams are all contracted out, and there has been a ‘complete transformation' in finance, social services and education. ‘We just snuck in at "good" in the first comprehensive performance assessment. The last one, we got four star and "improving strongly".' It hasn't all been plain sailing for Richmond. There have been changes in the political administration in both 2002 and 2006. But a recent place survey judged it to be the best place in London to live. As a reasonably affluent authority, Richmond has low grants from the Government, but high expectations from its public. As a result, she says it means the authority has to be prepared to ‘try things our' and be innovative. It means the council has always been a lean one, but it will still have to shave a further 10% off its bills. Gillian has called in consultants to give a ‘radical challenge' for her and her staff. ‘We have made it very clear to our staff that everyone has to be performing at the level of the best, and they have to be thinking about how they can do things better.' In terms of the Total Place agenda, she says she has not found much opportunities for cost cutting ‘but we have improved services' through joint working. Ultimately, though, the Government will have to realise that it can't keep cutting costs without any effect on services. ‘If there are going to be difficult choices on what we provide, we will have to work with people to make those decisions. It won't be easy. ‘We are trying to work with our public to get them to change and to get them to save the planet.' Richmond famously introduced a ‘gas-guzzlers tax', requiring owners of polluting vehicles to pay more for their parking permits. The recession has made a change. She says the public are becoming increasingly angry, and the council is facing more criticisms about being overstaffed and overpaid. ‘We remain unloved,' she smiles. Both Gillian and the finance director at Richmond have been in post for 10 years. She says: ‘We know we are going to be really squeezed. ‘But it requires the Government to be straightforward about what we don't have to do anymore. The trick will be to engage with the public at a time we have to cut costs.'

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Capital woman in the suburbs

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