‘I wish we had taken a few more risks’
WEST Berkshire Council’s outgoing chief executive has said he wished the council had taken more risks and was proud of the its development since 1998.
Nick Carter told the NWN: “It’s a relatively high performing organisation. It’s now financially stable.
“At the end of the day the council is about serving the people. I hope I have left it in a pretty reasonable condition going forward.”
He said he would miss his colleagues the most, adding: “We get our complaints, but it’s a nice place.”
On his regrets he said: “I suppose when I look back, I wish we had taken a few more risks, but I think that’s a bit difficult in a local government setting.
“I do wonder if we could have pushed a few things further and could have been a little less risk adverse with how we approach things.”
He said not investing in more affordable housing and tackling the green agenda sooner were his two main regrets.
He said: “Other authorities have got housing companies set up.
“We have been rather slow off the mark – we could have pushed that a bit more.
“If we had the resources we could have pushed the climate change stuff more.
“If we knew where the Government was going to go with commercial property I would have been more cautious and put more money into affordable housing.
“Commercial property has generated a profit for us and it
was easy to get going. It was a quick win.
“The housing company would have required a lot more effort.
“We have got the joint venture with Sovereign, but with hindsight I would have probably pushed that affordable housing.
“The environment would have been nice, but realistically, given it wasn’t a government priority, it would have been difficult.”
Mr Carter said the council had a lot of ambition to reach net zero carbon by 2030, but thought it would be tough.
He said: “It’s going to a hell of a job finding the resources to do that, we need to do it with the community. I don’t think anybody is going to challenge it.
“It’s a struggle to resource it. We could do with 10 times that to move it forward.
“If the Government can support local government like they have throughout Covid that will be great because we can’t do it here on our own.”
He said a challenge facing the district would be its ageing population.
“The population will get older very quickly, far more quickly than nationally. It will fill up with people who have retired, like me.
“I think one of the challenges will be where are the workers going to come from. I think West Berkshire will suffer from that.”
Mr Carter said it had always been difficult balancing the council budget.
He said: “What I remember as a key part of the role was financial stability while having to make cuts.
“Services have been cut back, but I do think we have done a pretty good job around protecting frontline delivery.
“Now we are in a better financial position, but we are probably missing some of the resources to take on that transformation work.
“It’s been a clear priority to protect frontline services, but it’s been challenging and we have lost staff along the way.”