Council leader: ‘I’m just an individual from the estates and I do the job I think the people want me to’
LEADER: Councillor Steve Brady. Tom Arran Commercial Photography
In an exclusive, wide ranging interview with The Hull Story’s Rick Lyon, Hull City Council leader Steve Brady discusses his time in charge, the city’s biggest challenge, exciting developments in the pipeline and much more
His time in charge
“I suppose you go through life and meet challenges as they come. You don’t really think about the magnitude of the things happening around you at the time.
“The situation in 2011 was that we were facing years of reductions in government support. In the nine years since I’ve been council leader we have lost approximately £140m per annum in government support. As an annual figure, in revenue that is huge – it is over 40 per cent of what it was. So the fact that all the services are still running – the libraries, the leisure facilities, the museums, the art galleries – is fantastic.
“There was a brutal redundancy process in the year that we took charge and over 1,000 people left in a month. It was tough on people but a lot of them were probably happy to go at that time. Since then, we haven’t really had a lot of forced redundancies. We’ve had voluntary redundancies along the way.
“What we did when we first came in was take stock really. What had been had been done and we couldn’t change that, but we set about trying to really streamline services and to come up with more inventive ways of doing things.
“As the years have gone by, like for other organisations such as the police, the fire service and particularly the NHS that have been going through a similar crisis, it was the ideal time to join budgets up. This was particularly the case with the health service. For example, we procure jointly with the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) on some services.
“The CCG have been really good and helpful in understanding that their problems were our problems and our problems were their problems. For instance, if you have shortages of social workers it can lead to blockages in the system with people leaving hospital needing support.
“We have had to break down the barriers. We couldn’t do what we wished to do and they couldn’t do what they wished to do so everyone has had to change and people are working harder, a lot harder.”
Hull’s biggest challenge
“The priority now is children’s services.
“If you look at some of the problems, there are a lot of pressures on families, including reductions in benefits, and family breakdowns have led to us now having more than 800 children in care.
“One of the most important aspects in the future will be early intervention and looking at how we can support these families, rather than breaking them up, because a child would always want to be with the parents, if at all possible.
“But this is nothing new. Every authority across the country, and in particular the inner cities, are all facing an increasing number of children being taken into care. It is because families can’t cope and there are many, many different reasons for this.
“We were a family of 14 – with 12 children and mam and dad – brought up in the 50s in a three-bedroomed house on one of the estates. Our parents were strong and we were all bound together but life is different now, with different pressures. There wasn’t all the social media like there is today, for example.
“The worry is that the government doesn’t turn the funding tap back on, because the pressure on children’s care and social service is enormous. I think the government recognise that but, of course, they have so many pressures coming up now, I don’t want them to lose sight of the problems in inner city areas.
“Seventy per cent of the budget that we have is top up from the government to run the council. That is because of our generally low base As and Bs in the rateable values of properties. It is getting better now because we are building new houses but we have very narrow boundaries in Hull and we are stretched.
“So we get 70 per cent government support and 30 per cent is raised through the local rates. In the East Riding, it is exactly the opposite – they get 70 per cent locally and 30 per cent off the government, because they’ve got higher tax bands.
“So for every 1 per cent that you can put your rates up, it brings the East Riding £1.5m and us £750,000. The 70 per cent the government give us has been cut by 40 per cent. In the East Riding, they’ve only had 30 per cent of their funding cut by 40 per cent. Its hard to explain to people but in effect, although they also face pressures in the East Riding, the pressures facing the city – through no fault of our own but the type of boundaries and the low tax base – are much greater.
“That’s the frustration.”
Exciting developments
“We put this huge bid in to the Heritage Lottery Fund to celebrate our maritime history. We put in for near enough £15m from a nation-wide pot of £40m, so it was a very adventurous bid and they really scrutinised it. We put the bid in during the City of Culture year and a few months ago we were told that we had been successful for the amount we had asked for.
“So that’s the next really big project. It’s all going out now to tender for all the works to start. It will focus on the Maritime Museum and they are opening it right up to the dome at the top, to have more work on show and a viewing area across the city. There’s a huge amount of work going on there.
“Queens Gardens will be totally renovated, with £4.5m going into that, partially of the city council’s money.
“Then you’ve got the reopening of the Dry Dock, which has lain waste for a long time, and there’s going to be a visitor centre there that will tell everybody who comes to Hull the full history of steam ships, of trawlers, and of the lives of people from Hull, with recorded conversations. This will be a real winner.
“And of course, the Arctic Corsair’s permanent placing will form part of it. That’s been totally renovated. The Lightship on the marina is totally renovated and if the Viola comes back from the Falklands, that will be totally renovated by apprentices. So there are some really historic things going on.
“There is a lot to look forward to. We’ve got the magnificent new Bonus Arena, which makes that area look a lot nicer compared to what it was. That was a decision that not everyone was in favour of but we felt we had to provide a different type of entertainment to the likes of Hull New Theatre or Hull Truck. They are all complimentary and I’ve got no regrets about that whatsoever.
“The next big change is Whitefriargate. We have put in a government bid for £22m and the encouraging sign is that they have given us the best part of £750,000 to get on with all the planning.
“We will find out soon if we have been successful. We are one of 50 serious bids that have been picked and we do work well with government because they know we will deliver. If you get a reputation for delivering, they know it’s not going to be wasted.
“Our vision for Whitefriargate will be what I’d call a working man’s Humber Street. We want to have a mix of the culture, the arts, the cafes, and some of the properties broken up into smaller units to allow them to thrive. We want thriving little businesses with low rents, given the opportunity to prosper and then possibly moving on to other sites.
“A lot of the units are too big, such as the likes of Marks and Spencer’s. There are a lot of empty properties down there that we could acquire, along with business.
“We have said there will be no national chains in Humber Street and I envisage something similar on Whitefriargate.
“We will do the work regardless of the bid, but it will be a slower process if we don’t get the funds. We’ll make a start though because we’ve got really good, reliable and enthusiastic private companies that are absolutely on board.
“We want to bring Whitefriargate back to the people.”
‘EXCITING TIMES’: Councillor Steve Brady in the chambers at The Guildhall. Tom Arran Commercial Photography
The General Election result and Brexit…
“It’s a wake-up call for the Labour Party, for sure.
“You have your gut instincts and I’ve been elected six time in the same ward, so I think I know the people and I know what the people were saying to me. A lot of them were saying ‘I’m not going to vote for the party. It’s nothing against you Steve. I’ll vote for you again in the locals’.
“They were saying they wouldn’t vote for Labour because the party had broken a promise by not complying with the referendum. That was the main reason. You can talk about all the policies but they’d lost trust. Whether you like it or not, it was a democratic vote.
“I think we also overpromised. What we have never done as a local council is to over promise on anything, we’ve just got our heads down and got on with stuff.
“Yes, you get criticism for whatever you do as a council. I can’t go in a café or a pub without someone passing a comment and that is righty so, that’s democracy. I’ve never objected to people telling me they don’t agree with me. But on this occasion, you couldn’t even talk about the policies that could make their lives better because you couldn’t get through the point that we hadn’t followed their instruction and we weren’t democratic.
“Our three MPs all got in but only by the thinnest of majorities. Like us all, they have to listen and there are lessons to be learned – don’t go against the wishes of the people. That was very, very strong.
“What I am pleased about now is that I think it wore every household in this city and this country down. People had to get rid of this sore because it was causing family rows.
“As I said to the MPs, I voted to remain, but when I walked into that voting station I was taking part in a democratic decision. Like it or not, if I don’t accept the result that comes out the end of it, then I’m not a democrat and it is dangerous territory to say something should be re-run.
“Yes, I was disappointed, but after the shock I had to get my head round the fact that that’s life, that’s democracy.”
Hull’s year as City of Culture…
“One of the first decisions we made was to put in for City of Culture.
“I didn’t know a lot about it, to be honest, but we got a really good team together and went into it with gusto. We got the support of the public and we won.
“There were a lot of doubters but what I liked about it was that, when it came about, they stopped me in the streets and said ‘you know what, I was cynical about it but you were right’.
“When we were turning the city centre upside down and there were barriers everywhere, I basically had to keep my head down though.
“My wife said to me ‘I think you’re in trouble’. It was the first Christmas when all the barriers were in place and I said ‘How’s that then?’. She said ‘Well I was sat on the bus behind two ladies and they said they were going to string you up from the nearest lamppost if they could get hold of you’. I asked if she defended me and she said ‘No, I slipped down into my seat!’. She said I shouldn’t venture out too much until things settled down but these are the things that you know will cause you some pain but you have to go for it, if you think it will be for the greater good.
“The year itself certainly met my expectations. I think if there was one mistake maybe that was made, it was that there should have been a big bang at the end. Something like the first week, we should have had on the last week.
“The idea put to us was that, by doing this, we’d be saying it was at an end, when in effect we want it to roll on. But what happened was the expectation remained as high going into 2018.”
CHALLENGE: Council leader Steve Brady knows there are difficult times ahead
What keeps him awake at night
“The only time that really happens is if there is an illness or something in the family.
“I can only do my best and to be quite frank, at my age (74) I can sleep easy because I know I’ve done my best. If I thought I’d failed, that would keep me awake.
“Yes, when something goes horribly wrong, I will fret over it, but I’ve gone from being excitable and quick to argue as a young person to being more circumspect over the years, and actually that’s what age does.
“I’ve been in politics for 20 years but I was a union convenor at BP Chemicals for 20 years as well. I loved my time there and that was were I learned the art of negotiation and met some very nice people in management who would listen to an argument. You learn the art of negotiating and compromising.
“I then ran a newsagent and I listened to the problems that people had, because people tend to go in and have a gossip and a chat. I lived in the area and I though ‘I don’t see why they should have to put up with this. I think I can do something about it.’ Sometimes life just happens and you can’t predict what you are going to do. There are many turns in the road.
“I tell the kids at Youth Parliament that if I could do it, then they can do it. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. What you’ve got to do is grasp opportunities, work hard and listen to what other people have to say.
“I’m just an individual from the estates and I’m no different from anybody else. I do the job I think the people want me to do. I just do my best.”
Social media
“I don’t do social media. I’ve never, ever tweeted anybody and I still have an old phone.
“The kids tell me I need a modern phone but I don’t want this one to pack up. I can take calls and ring people and I want to talk to people, rather than get into any battles on social media.
“Obviously, as leader I get a lot of letters but I like to reply properly. If I need to get the officers who can sort out a problem to meet them face to face, then that is what I will do. Generally, people leave feeling better because they can see that you have taken the time to talk. The reason I’ve got time to talk to people is that I’m not always looking at a screen.
“The grandkids teach me things that I don’t know about and they say ‘Grandad, you really need to get yourself sorted!’ But it works for me because I’m a people’s person and I like the direct contact.
“That’s the way I work.”
Editor’s note: interview conducted pre-coronavirus lockdown.