Liverpool will be run by Whitehall

LIVERPOOL will be partly run from Whitehall after a damning report into alleged town hall corruption.

The Labour-run city council will lose power over roads, planning, property and regeneration for three years with control handed to Government-appointed commissioners.

The rare takeover was announced yesterday after inspectors uncovered a culture of bullying, avoidance of rules and money being wasted on improperly awarded contracts.

Their probe came after Merseyside Police began investigating alleged bribery, fraud, corruption and witness intimidation. Five men were arrested, including Liverpool’s former mayor Joe Anderson and prominent Left-winger Derek hatton. They deny wrongdoing.

It is only the fourth time in 25 years that central government has sent in commissioners to run a failing local council, and the first time it has intervened in an authority the size of Liverpool.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told the Commons that the inspectors paint ‘a deeply concerning picture of mismanagement, the breakdown of scrutiny and accountability, a dysfunctional culture putting the spending of public funds at risk and undermining the city’s economic development’.

he said a partnership was needed ‘to mend a politics that for too long has been rooted in a pervasive and rotten culture’.

Labour’s leadership angered many on the Left by backing the plan. But its communities spokesman Steve Reed said: ‘It’s about the Government appointing independent people of the highest professional standing to help the council improve.’