12 July 2002
But special advisers, it seems, also have their efficiencies. Just six weeks after losing his job at the heart of government, 'canny Corry', as the press have dubbed him, has already reappeared in a different guise – as incoming executive director of the New Local Government Network.
Corry, 42, will take up the post in September. Former special advisers, particularly ones associated with spin scandals, are supposed to fade conveniently into obscurity – not take a role that will propel them further into the political spotlight, well at least in local government.
After five years as a policy adviser, to Margaret Beckett, Peter Mandelson and then to Byers, Corry is anxious to 'come out of the shadows' and do some thinking for himself. As executive director of the NLGN, a think-tank often labelled 'Blairite', his 'thinking' will place him directly under the nose of his old department.
His former colleagues, now largely under the remit of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, are less than impressed with his career move. Officials, apparently, wanted Corry to hold up the announcement of his new post, at least until the committee on standards in public life has completed its investigations into special advisers. The ODPM is anxious for the political dust to settle, particularly over Corry's infamous e-mail episode.
In an exclusive interview with Public Finance, 'canny Corry' becomes 'coy Corry' when asked why he sent e-mails searching for information on the political affiliations of the Paddington Survivors Group. 'I did apologise unreservedly for the upset I caused. It shouldn't have happened and it was a mistake. But I've said all I have to say on the issue,' he states.
The e-mails were leaked after Byers resigned on May 28 and Corry followed – but it still proved a media fest and an embarrassment for the government. It also followed on the heels of his colleague Jo Moore's 'good day to bury bad news' e-mail. 'Well, you know these things happen,' he shrugs.
But, according to Corry, he was already planning his way out of government – 'expressing an interest' in the NLGN post a few weeks before Byers' resignation. The job will be a return to 'think-tanking' as he describes it – he spent five years as a senior economist at the Institute for Public Policy Research and was touted as a potential director before the days of Matthew Taylor.
He claims to have developed an interest in local government and 'localism' (a new, catch-all phrase for describing local service delivery) while ensconced at the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions. Corry was heavily involved in the drafting of last December's local government white paper, which included the controversial Comprehensive Performance Assessment and the review of the Standard Spending Assessment published this week.
He said that local government is currently 'the place to be' with a 'fair wind' blowing towards it from Whitehall. 'Maybe I'm being optimistic but I sense there is a mood across the political spectrum that has come back to saying that localism matters,' he says.
'There is a feeling that local government is no longer just an inconvenient bit that government tries to drive public services through – that feeling went through both parties. There is quite a change now – well, in the rhetoric.'
He adds that the white paper, which also had input from the Treasury and Number 10, reflects this new mood. But then he would say that, wouldn't he?
But Corry warns that this mood, which is partially cyclical, will pass if local government doesn't get its act together and grab the opportunity – perhaps an indication of why he's suddenly so keen to come out of the shadows and into the political limelight. 'There is a window of two to three years. The government and the Conservatives really have a direction of travel. If we can show that if you do give local government more freedoms it doesn't mean that if it collapses the centre gets blamed, then beyond that will become a very exciting agenda.'
And Corry already has a game plan. He says the root cause of Whitehall's reluctance to grant councils more freedom is its inability to countenance the possibility of failure. 'This is not just in politicians, it is in the Whitehall machine. If you are going to let local government go a bit more, then you are basically saying you are prepared to let them fail – that's very worrying for the centre.'
He says that government needs more of a security blanket than relying on local elections to turf out poor performing members. And that security blanket is intervention.
This is likely to be the first focus of his work at the NLGN, and will pick up some of the policy he began at the DTLR. The Comprehensive Performance Assessment includes intervention, but according to Corry the government has let such processes drift in the past.
'This is an area that hasn't really been tried out. A number of authorities are in freefall and they all play a game: will the government bail us out one way or the other? I know, I spent the past year grappling with them.
'I feel very strongly that people have to be very clear what the process is, just as companies are aware of what happens when they go bust.'
He says any methods of intervention should be clear and non-political, with systems 'that gets ministers out of having to decide if it is failing or not'.
'To some degree what happens to failing authorities has to be unpleasant because intervention has to be enough of a deterrent to prevent people getting in that situation,' he adds.
But his game plan is unlikely to make him popular among his new peers. The Local Government Association has already warned that the CPA is too geared toward inspection while not delivering the promised freedoms and flexibilities. He agrees that the CPA could turn into a bureaucracy itself. 'We should all try and push hard for the positive version of it,' he says.
Like the last executive director of the NLGN, John Williams, Corry knows his new post will not win him any popularity contests. 'I hope the NLGN will be a radical, cutting-edge think-tank, and in that sense you will annoy people.' He says the NLGN has a role that others cannot fill, particularly the LGA. 'They have to square a lot of people before they can say anything about anything,' he says.
It is likely that the NLGN will change beyond recognition in the next year – it will ease up on its mayoral campaign and will attempt to offer practical advice on the Private Finance Initiative as well as general policy work. No doubt his former paymasters will be watching what 'canny Corry' has up his sleeve.
PFjul2002
