Latest news with #SarahHealey
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
A gong for our times, meet Dame WFH (but will she leave home to get it?) Controversial mandarin and border chief who oversaw 129,000 small-boat arrivals among list to scoop top honours
A Mandarin who became notorious for her love of working from home has been made a dame. Sarah Healey infamously boasted that Covid-era lockdowns meant she could see more of her children as well as giving her longer to ride her expensive exercise bike. 'I have a Peloton and I can just get on my bike whenever I have a teeny bit of time. That has been a huge benefit to my well-being – the lack of travelling time eating into my day,' the then permanent secretary for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport told a conference in 2021. Her comments prompted Tory ministers to tell civil servants they 'need to get off their Pelotons and get back to their desks', as she became synonymous with the working from home culture that took hold in the public sector during the pandemic years. But Ms Healey's career was unaffected as she became Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in 2023, where she is now paid over £180,000 a year. And in today's King's Birthday Honours list she becomes a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath. Another controversial Whitehall recipient of a gong is a borders chief on whose watch the Channel migrant crisis has exploded. Phil Douglas, Director General of Border Force, is made Companion of the Order of the Bath 'for services to Border Security and Public Service'. But since his appointment in November 2021, at least 129,000 immigrants have arrived in Britain illegally via dinghies. Last night a Reform UK source told the Mail: 'Once again we are seeing the Government reward utter failure. 'Productivity has taken a hammering thanks to these mandarins allowing a lazy work from home culture. A Reform government is going to trim the fat and get the civil service working again.' And a Tory source said: 'Keir Starmer doesn't run a meritocracy – he runs a mediocrity. 'Dishing out gongs for incompetence and shirking from home sends the signal loud and clear that mediocre middle managers are in charge now.' Former minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who led the drive to get civil servants back to their desks, told the Mail: 'It is much more honest to say these awards are automatic and not pretend it's discretionary, when they get given to people who don't turn up to work. 'They are part of the patronage system used by ministers to oil the wheels of government.' Political figures named in the honours list include former Tory minister Penny Mordaunt, famed for her role carrying a sword at the King's Coronation, who is made a dame. She said: 'It is lovely to be appreciated in this way, and I'm very conscious that everything I have ever got done has been with the help and efforts of others.' Serving Labour MP Chi Onwurah also becomes a dame, while party whip Mark Tami receives a knighthood. And Peter Hyman, a former adviser to both Sir Tony Blair and Sir Keir Starmer, is awarded a CBE.
The Independent
03-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Fears of local government financial collapse ‘pessimistic', says top civil servant
A senior civil servant leading flagship local government reforms has said it is too pessimistic to fear the sector will collapse because of financial pressures. Sarah Healey, permanent secretary at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), told MPs that planned changes to the way councils are funded and structured are necessary to 'fix the foundations' and enable councils to 'succeed in the future'. During an appearance before the Public Accounts Committee, Ms Healey and other senior civil servants repeatedly defended the Government's bid to place local authorities on a sustainable footing, amid funding pressures which have seen dozens of councils seek exceptional financial support. Committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown used an analogy that many councils, as 'the nuts and bolts of local government', were 'rusting through (and) about to bust'. Referencing the Government's English devolution white paper, which details plans to abolish smaller councils to create large unitary authorities serving a minimum population of 500,000, Mr Clifton-Brown added: 'On top of that, you want to build an entirely new building of local government reorganisation with those rusted-through nuts and bolts.' He added: 'My worry is that whole thing is going to collapse. Am I being pessimistic?' Ms Healey said: 'I think so. I'm an optimist … the only way we can ultimately fix the foundations is by making sure that local government is in the right shape to succeed in to the future, and that is why we don't think there is any element of this reform – from funding distribution through to local government reorganisation – that we can't try to achieve. We need to achieve it all.' Will Garton, director general for local government at MHCLG, said there is evidence that reorganisation can reduce costs, citing a report by PwC which identified £2.9 billion in savings over five years. He added: 'We just need that money. We don't have a choice. We have got to do both because the situation is so serious.' But Nico Heslop, director of local government finance at MHCLG, said both the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and local government minister Jim McMahon had been 'absolutely clear' that the problems 'would not get sorted overnight'. He added: 'There will be difficult choices, and I feel that they have already taken difficult choices, and we think it will be better and we think it is the right thing to do. 'But we think it is not going to be without noise or without difficulty and we will need to continue to work very closely with the sector.' A recent survey by the Local Government Association (LGA) found that nearly three-quarters of responding councils felt it would be very or fairly difficult compared with earlier years to set a balanced budget for 2025/26. The LGA said councils in England were facing a funding gap of more than £8 billion by 2028/29. The Government is providing exceptional financial assistance to 30 councils. Ms Healey added: 'We don't underestimate the complexity and difficulty, and indeed genuinely, the capacity constraints in councils to get all of this done, but we think it needs to be done.' The Government is consulting on reforms to the way councils are funded from 2026/27. Changes include a move to multi-year funding settlements, adjustments to the relative needs formula which dictates the distribution of funding, a reset of business rates retention, and fewer funding streams to simplify the system.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fears of local government financial collapse ‘pessimistic', says top civil servant
A senior civil servant leading flagship local government reforms has said it is too pessimistic to fear the sector will collapse because of financial pressures. Sarah Healey, permanent secretary at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), told MPs that planned changes to the way councils are funded and structured are necessary to 'fix the foundations' and enable councils to 'succeed in the future'. During an appearance before the Public Accounts Committee, Ms Healey and other senior civil servants repeatedly defended the Government's bid to place local authorities on a sustainable footing, amid funding pressures which have seen dozens of councils seek exceptional financial support. Committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown used an analogy that many councils, as 'the nuts and bolts of local government', were 'rusting through (and) about to bust'. Referencing the Government's English devolution white paper, which details plans to abolish smaller councils to create large unitary authorities serving a minimum population of 500,000, Mr Clifton-Brown added: 'On top of that, you want to build an entirely new building of local government reorganisation with those rusted-through nuts and bolts.' He added: 'My worry is that whole thing is going to collapse. Am I being pessimistic?' Ms Healey said: 'I think so. I'm an optimist … the only way we can ultimately fix the foundations is by making sure that local government is in the right shape to succeed in to the future, and that is why we don't think there is any element of this reform – from funding distribution through to local government reorganisation – that we can't try to achieve. We need to achieve it all.' Will Garton, director general for local government at MHCLG, said there is evidence that reorganisation can reduce costs, citing a report by PwC which identified £2.9 billion in savings over five years. He added: 'We just need that money. We don't have a choice. We have got to do both because the situation is so serious.' But Nico Heslop, director of local government finance at MHCLG, said both the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and local government minister Jim McMahon had been 'absolutely clear' that the problems 'would not get sorted overnight'. He added: 'There will be difficult choices, and I feel that they have already taken difficult choices, and we think it will be better and we think it is the right thing to do. 'But we think it is not going to be without noise or without difficulty and we will need to continue to work very closely with the sector.' A recent survey by the Local Government Association (LGA) found that nearly three-quarters of responding councils felt it would be very or fairly difficult compared with earlier years to set a balanced budget for 2025/26. The LGA said councils in England were facing a funding gap of more than £8 billion by 2028/29. The Government is providing exceptional financial assistance to 30 councils. Ms Healey added: 'We don't underestimate the complexity and difficulty, and indeed genuinely, the capacity constraints in councils to get all of this done, but we think it needs to be done.' The Government is consulting on reforms to the way councils are funded from 2026/27. Changes include a move to multi-year funding settlements, adjustments to the relative needs formula which dictates the distribution of funding, a reset of business rates retention, and fewer funding streams to simplify the system.
