22OCT

Bedford council set to get commissioners

3 min read

16:26UTC

Jim McMahon told MPs on 15 October he is minded to send commissioners into Bedford Borough Council and to keep Slough under intervention for three more years.

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PoliticsAssessed

Key takeaway

Bedford faces commissioners, and Slough's intervention is set to run into 2029.

Jim McMahon, the local government minister who put July's reorganisation decisions under review in September, told MPs on 15 October he is minded to direct Bedford Borough Council to nominate commissioners, some able to run council functions⁠¹. Inspectors said they had "no confidence that the necessary improvement will be secured without external intervention". Governance was "not adequate for a council with a directly elected mayoral model operating without overall political control", in the minister's words. The inspectors also found a "negative culture", with reports of bullying and misogynistic behaviour not systematically addressed. McMahon named no individual.

Bedford voters elect the mayor, Tom Wootton, in a separate ballot from councillors, and no party holds a majority in the chamber. The council needed Exceptional Financial Support (EFS), government permission to fund running costs from borrowing or asset sales, to balance its budgets for 2025/26 and 2026/27.

Slough Borough Council, under intervention since December 2021, is set to stay there for three more years under directions the minister is minded to issue, with a refreshed commissioner team and a political adviser before and after its all-out election in May 2027⁠². The commissioners' eighth report found recovery "slow, uneven and fragile" and forecast a £20m overspend. Slough's voters will elect councillors next spring who would work under commissioners into 2029.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Every council in England has a legal duty, called Best Value, to run its services and money well. When the Government thinks a council is failing that duty, it can send inspectors. If inspectors find serious problems, the minister can appoint commissioners. These are outside experts who can take over some of the council's decisions. Bedford would now get commissioners. Slough has had them since 2021, and the minister wants them to stay for three more years.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Bedford pairs two hard models. A mayor elected separately from a chamber where no party has a majority must build a new coalition for every budget, and inspectors found the cross-party working that requires was missing.

The statutory tool is section 15 of the Local Government Act 1999. It lets the Secretary of State direct a council and hand named functions to commissioners, which ministers can renew by fresh directions.

Slough's intervention follows its July 2021 section 114 notice, the formal warning that a council cannot balance its books. Recovery from that point means rebuilding finance, housing and children's services at once together, a task that rarely fits a single set of directions.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Slough voters elect a whole new council in May 2027 that will share power with commissioners.
Risk
Commissioners at Bedford may struggle to fix finances that depend on borrowing permission renewed each year.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: After Max Caller's inspection of Liverpool City Council in March 2021, ministers sent in commissioners that June with powers over highways, regeneration and property. Liverpool later voted to scrap its directly elected mayor, returning to a leader and cabinet from May 2023.

Counter-parallel: Croydon went the other way. After its section 114 notice in November 2020 it worked under a non-statutory improvement panel, and in October 2021 its voters chose a directly elected mayor, first elected in May 2022.

Bedford needed Exceptional Financial Support for both 2025/26 and 2026/27, which means borrowing or selling assets to pay running costs. Each year of that adds debt costs to future budgets, so the commissioners inherit a structural gap rather than a single bad year.

In Slough the eighth commissioners' report also flags serious weaknesses in children's services, special educational needs provision and housing, the three areas that drive most council overspends nationally.

Consensus view: The Bedford inspection team, Paul Najsarek, Margaret Lee and Tasnim Shawkat, located the problem in governance: weak cross-party working that left the council unable to confront its finances. Dame Mary Ney's external review of Slough, commissioned in March, fed a similar judgement there, that recovery remains "slow, uneven and fragile".

Counter-view: The Local Government Association argued in May that Exceptional Financial Support is "no longer exceptional", with 22% of councils running key services balancing budgets that way. On that reading, councils like Bedford reach intervention because the national funding system leaves little room for error, and governance failings are exposed rather than caused.

Key tension: Whether commissioners can fix councils whose deepest problem lies in a funding settlement they have no power to change.

Sources:Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government·Local Government Lawyer

Mentions:Jim McMahon →Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) →Exceptional Financial Support →England →Liverpool →Croydon →Local Government Association →Tasnim →Bedford →Bedford Borough Council →Tom Wootton →Slough Borough Council →Local Government Act 1999 →Liverpool City Council →Max Caller →Paul Najsarek →Dame Mary Ney →

First Reported In

Update #19 · ITV footage drives Reform councillors out

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government· 22 Oct 2026

Read original →

Different Perspectives

Scottish National Party / John Swinney

Swinney told the SNP conference in Aberdeen on 17 October that Scotland is ready for independence, but set no referendum date, bill or Section 30 request. He launched a new campaign instead and extended the £2 bus fare cap to the north east from April 2027.

Liberal Democrats / Ed Davey

Davey ruled out a national partnership with the Greens on 19 October after their Brighton conference passed a "Zionism is racism" motion, and wrote to two Jewish community bodies. He left untouched the councils the two parties already run together.

Reform UK / Richard Tice

Tice alleged ITV's reporter used false details to get a press-office job and said ITV had "likely broken the law", telling members not to speak to it until it apologises. Reform also opened investigations into members, with some suspensions, so the party is contesting the broadcaster and disciplining councillors at once.

Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.

Michael Marra / Scottish Labour

Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.

Andy Burnham / Labour Party

Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.