New Local Government Network announces new Chair and key additions to Board of Trustees

March 18, 2004

The New Local Government Network (NLGN) is this week announcing a set of changes to the make up of its governing body, the NLGN Board of Trustees – including a change in Chair, as current board member Helen Randall replaces the existing postholder, Professor Gerry Stoker.



Ms Randall – a partner with legal firm, Nabarro Nathanson but soon to join Trowers and Hamlins – will take over as Chair of the local government modernising think tank in July. Today, Ms Randall, a legal expert on procurement and best value issues, who has sat on NLGN’s governing body since 1999, said:



    “I am incredibly honoured to be taking over as Chair of the New Local Government Network, having been involved in the organisation for almost five years now and having admired the roles played by its current Chair, Gerry Stoker and director, Dan Corry in ensuring that the work of NLGN is shaping many key policy debates”.

Professor Stoker steps aside, having been NLGN Chair since its formal inception as a think-tank in 1998. He will however remain a full member of the Board and is currently writing a pamphlet for NLGN – to be published in the autumn – outlining his case for further radical reforms in local government. Professor Stoker, who also co-directs the Institute of Political and Economic Governance (IPEG) at Manchester University, said today:



    “I have thoroughly enjoyed my six years as NLGN Chair, being deeply involved in an organisation unafraid to pull its punches and indeed which punches well above its weight. The work and camaraderie of both current and former NLGN staff and board members alike has made it the organisation that it is. I will carry on playing a key role in NLGN’s activities but it is time to handover the seat of Chair to another member of the board, and I believe Helen Randall will bring a new dimension to NLGN’s influence”.

In further moves, NLGN has announced a number of new additions to its Board of Trustees. These include Paul Kirby, formerly of the Audit Commission and Cabinet Office, and who has recently taken up a new post at the BBC, Dr Colin Sinclair, former Chief Executive of Sunderland City Council, Pauleen Lane, Audit Commissioner and Deputy Leader of Trafford MBC, Mike Emmerich, former local government adviser at No.10 and now director of IPEG, Abigail Melville, Assistant Director for Policy and Quality at the IDeA, and local government historian Tristram Hunt.



NLGN director, Dan Corry said today:



    “The changes and additions to the NLGN Board are all part of our natural development. While I am particularly happy that Helen Randall is taking the role of Chair, I am also pleased that Gerry Stoker will continue to work closely with myself and others at NLGN on what continues to be an exciting agenda for local government”.

All NLGN media enquiries to Ian Parker on 020 7357 0116



Notes for Editors:

The New Local Government Network is an independent think-tank, seeking to transform public services, revitalise local political leadership and empower local communities. www.nlgn.org.uk



Helen Randall is a currently a partner at Nabarro Nathanson’s Public Sector Department, and will shortly join Trowers and Hamlins – a legal firm specialising in public sector and housing issues. Helen was the only solicitor on the Government’s taskforce chaired by Sir Ian Byatt examining procurement skills within local government. She has been a Trustee of NLGN since 1999 and recently contributed a chapter to the NLGN edited collection Procurement & Partnership. Doing it right. Making it work (NLGN, April 2004). She is editor of Butterworths’ Local Government Contracts and Procurement and Guide to the Local Government Act 1999, and was an advisor to the ippr’s Building Better Partnerships report as well as the NLGN reports Achieving Best Value and Strategic Partnering for Local Service Delivery.



The full 16-strong membership of NLGN’s Board of Trustees is: Helen Randall, Gerry Stoker, Nick Sharman, Iain Roxburgh, Steve Bullock, Amanda Macintyre, John Foster, Paul Corrigan, Ben Lucas, Munira Thobani, Tristram Hunt, Paul Kirby, Pauleen Lane, Colin Sinclair, Mike Emmerich and Abigail Melville.


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