Government intervention

Central government intervention into the finances, investments and related governance of the council, Section 114 notice, Grant Thornton Public Interest Report, part 2 meeting documents, the Improvement and Recovery Plan.

Contents

Government commissioners

The commissioners are accountable to the Secretary of State and report regularly on our progress towards recovery.

The commissioners work with senior council officers to deliver an agreed recovery and action plan at pace.

The commissioners appointed by the Secretary of State are:

  • Sir Tony Redmond – Lead Commissioner
  • Richard Carr – Managing Director Commissioner
  • Mervyn Greer – Commissioner
  • Barry Scarr – Commissioner

Lead Commissioner – Sir Tony Redmond

Tony has a long and substantial career in public service. He commenced his work in the public sector for Liverpool City Council where he ultimately became Chief Accountant. Subsequently he was appointed to the role of Deputy Finance Director at Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, and then Finance Director and Deputy Chief Executive of Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, as well as Treasurer to the Merseyside Police Authority.

His next local authority was the London Borough of Harrow, where he held posts of Chief Executive and Director of Finance, as well as Treasurer to the West London Waste Authority. Following this he was appointed as Chairman and Chief Executive of the Commission for Local Administration in England and Local Government Ombudsman.

Since leaving the Ombudsman role, Tony has been a Local Government Boundary Commissioner, Treasurer of UNICEF UJ and Chair of the Consumer Council for Water in London and the South East. He has recently complete a government assignment to examine Local Audit in England (‘The Redmond Review’) – GOV.UK and undertook a three-year review of Nottingham City Council as Chair of its Improvement and Assurance Board. In December 2023, he took on the role of Lead Commissioner at Woking Borough Council.

He is a former President of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and he was Knighted for services to Local Government in 2011.

Read Sir Tony Redmond's appointment letter, 13 December 2023 – GOV.UK

Managing Director Commissioner – Richard Carr

In his substantive career, Richard worked for 7 unitary, county, district and London borough councils, including:

  • East Cambridgeshire District Council
  • Aylesbury Vale District Council
  • Wolverhampton City Council
  • Central Bedfordshire Council as Chief Executive, 2009 and 2020

Between 2017 and 2020, Richard was also the Senior Responsible Officer for the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care System (ICS).

In 2020, Richard was asked to support the Department of Health and Social Care in its response to the Covid pandemic, which he did until 2022 as Regional Convenor for the South West. During that time, he led a team supporting local partners in their efforts to protect and support the region’s five million residents, including through the fastest roll out of the vaccination programme in the country.

Since 2022, Richard has undertaken a number of interim management and coaching assignments, including with the City of Edinburgh Council and most recently, Colchester City Council where he has led the authority’s group of wholly-owned trading companies as Managing Director. Richard is also the Managing Director of the East Midlands Development Company (EM DevCo).

Recently, Richard has become the Senior Non-Executive Director of the East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT).

Richard is an accredited peer for the Local Government Association’s sector-led improvement programme and has led Corporate Peer Challenges in Northumbria, Devon, Stockport, and Shropshire.

Read Richard Carr's appointment letter, 13 December 2023 – GOV.UK

Commissioner – Mervyn Greer

Mervyn is the long-term serving Director of Kier Group, a leading UK construction and infrastructure services company.

Prior to working at Kier Group, he held the role of Development Director at Accord Plc, a local authority highways construction and maintenance company, and Head of Local Government and Facilities Management Consultancy at Amey, a leading infrastructure services and engineering company.

In 2016 Mervyn was engaged as an accredited commercial assessor for the Government Commercial Function development programme. In 2018 he was appointed by the Cabinet Office as Crown Representative with responsibility for the relationships with strategic suppliers to Government and Crown Representative to the Local Government Association.

In 2020 Mervyn was appointed by the Secretary of State as an inspector for the statutory review of Liverpool City Council.

Read Mervyn Greer's appointment letter, 1 May 2024 – GOV.UK

Commissioner – Barry Scarr

In his substantive career, Barry was a Director of Finance with over 20 years’ experience in the role. He has worked in a variety of councils at a senior level, including:

  • the London Borough of Waltham Forest
  • the London Borough of Haringey
  • the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
  • Durham County Council
  • Sunderland City Council
  • Bradford City Council

Barry's speciality are councils that are in financial difficulties. His last two roles were MHCLG appointments to Northamptonshire in 2019 and Liverpool in 2022, both of which were under government intervention. Barry has a track record of stabilising adverse financial positions and developing sustainable transformation programmes.

Since retirement, Barry has carried out a Financial Sustainability and Improvement Advisor (FISA) role for the Local Government Association (LGA), as well as advising the Department for Education (DfE) on the national Safety Valve programme for high needs funding. 

Barry was a member of the Middlesbrough Council Independent Improvement and Advisory Board until March 2025, and is currently a member of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Financial Improvement and Sustainability Board.

Read Barry Scarr's appointment letter, 15 April 2025 – GOV.UK

Contact the government commissioners

To contact the commissioners:

Email: commissioners@woking.gov.uk 

Please do not email the commissioners to report a problem with a council service or to make a complaint.

Service problems and complaints

If you wish to request a service or report a problem with a service, please contact the relevant service area.

If you wish to make a complaint, please use our complaints process.

If you remain dissatisfied, having completed our formal complaints procedure, you can complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) if you believe the matter has not been handled properly and our complaints process includes contact details for how to do this.

Commissioners' publications

The commissioners report our progress to the government's Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on a regular basis.

Letter from Commissioners to the Leader of the Council: appointment of Richard Carr as Head of Paid Service, 18 March 2024 (PDF, 103.76 KB)