The chief executive of Brighton and Hove City Council’s “secret” trip to a champagne-fuelled property conference in Cannes this week has been slammed by union bosses.
Geoff Raw has been invited to the MIPIM conference as a guest of one of the conference sponsors, and Mr Raw talked about the council’s proposed joint venture with the Hyde Group to build new social housing.
The council says the trip won’t cost the taxpayer a penny – but branch secretary of the city’s GMB union branch Mark Turner says it sends out the wrong message to staff facing massive job losses and further budget cuts.
And he also questioned why council staff were not informed of Mr Raw’s leave of absence in the usual way.
Mr Turner said: “This is the first time that Brighton and Hove City Council, or the two authorities which preceded it, has ever had anybody go to this conference.
It’s known as a junket – champagne Charlies and everything else. On that basis, it brings into question why at that stage the chief executive has seen the opportunity to go over when there has been numerous occasions when other senior management have had the opportunity to go, and they haven’t.
“It sends a very poor message to the rest of the employees who are facing job cuts and reduced budgets.
“If there’s nothing to hide, and it’s for the benefit of the city, why hasn’t he gone out with the full blessing of the local authority? Why is it done on his leave?
“He’s out there with a particular investor which doesn’t necessarily have a very good name, particularly in relation to Sackville Towers. That the council is identifying them as a partner in a housing project before procurement, what message does that send out to other investors and developers in the city?
“For the most senior person in the council, the head of paid service, to go out as a guest of a sponsor – that leaves himself open to the challenge of impartiality. I find that poor judgement.”
However, Brighton based development consultant Ed Allison-Wright praised Mr Raw’s initiative in attending the event at his own expense.
He said: “My understanding is that the chief executive continued his holiday following this event, so in my view, if anything, we should be encouraging council officers to be proactive rather than reactive and participate in extra business development, as long as it is within their annual leave, not funded by the the council, logged for any declarations of interest and seeking inward investment into our city.
“I can think of less productive things to do on holiday!
“I also don’t think we should be distracted by the location. For those that have been to this event, the majority will tell you it’s lots of investor meetings and seminars in air conditioned rooms – perhaps we should try to secure the event in Brighton and Hove in years to come, to solve the issue.”
The council’s opposition Conservative group leader Geoffrey Theobald said: “Promoting the city of Brighton and Hove on the international stage certainly should be part of the chief executive’s job.
“It is vitally important that we continue to attract new inward investment both in terms of new job creation and also the extra business rates that the council will be able to retain.”
Councillor Theobald added: “All the global big players attend this conference and, as one of the UK’s biggest cities, it is only right that Brighton and Hove should be represented. Furthermore, this trip did not cost the council tax payer a penny.”
A council spokeswoman said: “Geoff Raw is at the MIPIM conference in Cannes for 24 hours talking with investors and developers about the opportunities in Brighton, Hove and the wider city-region.
“Geoff is one of around 100 representative from many different councils attending the conference and is covering his own travel and accommodation costs. On Tuesday, Geoff attended a lunch hosted by Hyde Group and talked about the council’s proposed joint venture with The Hyde Group.
“Geoff is on leave at the moment and this trip will not be costing the council or the taxpayer anything whatsoever.”
A spokeswoman for In House Communications, which booked spots for Hyde’s guests, confirmed Mr Raw had repaid the full cost of the trip in February out of his own pocket.
She said: “Mr Raw told me he was planning a trip to France anyway and was taking the week off and he would come to MIPIM while he was over there. He did a day’s networking there, and then left.
“Liverpool and Manchester both have stands there, which must have cost them about £100,000 each. I said to him that Liverpool and Manchester are out and proud about bringing investment in, and yet you’re paying for yourself.
“He said it’s the climate we’re in – I think it’s worth coming here for my own career, but also for the benefit of Brighton, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to expect the city to pay for it.”
The MIPIM conferences bill themselves as an international property fair for investors, corporate end-users, local authorities, hospitality professionals, industrial and logistics players and other real estate professionals.
But they have, rightly or wrongly, become notorious in recent years as being junkets where developers rub shoulders with civic leaders while the champagne flows.
It has been held in Cannes for almost three decades, but when it was hosted in London for the first time in 2014, it attracted huge protests from demonstrators angry at how local authorities have been handing over prime real estate to developers who then build luxury homes.
However, the council’s partnership with Hyde, which is primarily a housing association, is to build thousands of new homes for rent at affordable rates.
For Hyde to be inviteded to grease the wheels of Brighton & Hove City Council wheels is appalling.
Hyde is a Govt-grant-aided RSL and as such should not have thrown away over £24,000 on a planning application fee and whatever the planning consultant and architects cost (any change from £100,000??)to produce their impossible-to-consent 17-storey cylinder, now WITHDRAWN rather than face a refusal.
How is a company that irresponsible now sitting around in Cannes with out CEO any kind of ethical? How is it ethical for Brighton & Hove City Council officers, paid for by city resident taxes, to be playing away in Cannes with Hyde?
Hyde have gone from being a Housing Association to a Total Housing Developer,so are you saying they get funding for the whole Group or just the ‘Affordable Home’s division?
For the CEO of the Council to show this poor a judgement, and leave himself open to all sorts of accusations (whether true or not), is incredibly stupid or possibly something even worse. It brings into question his intelligence and/or his character. It leaves me with grave doubts on whether he is suitable of such a senior position. Unbelievably stupid! Is the Council not governed by the same Anti Corruption and Bribery guidance that private Companies need to abide by and under which there is no chance of something like this being sanctioned?
For the CEO of the Council to show this poor a judgement, and leave himself open to all sorts of accusations, is unbelievably stupid or possibly something worse. It brings into question either his intelligence or his
Mark Turner barks loudly about Geoff Raws trip but as far as I can see Mr Turner has rolled over and had his tummy tickled whilst council staff and city residents have suffered job losses and a reduction in service levels due to ideologically-driven Tory funding cuts to local government!!
Class A Corruption
MIPIM is the investor equivalent of speed dating, the idea being that opportunity meets investment. Citys and countries from around the world compete for the attention of major funds and developers who have the choice of where they deploy their capital and invest. You have to be in it to win it and this sounds like a sensible toe in the water to seek to promote Brighton and secure investment which could create jobs and help replace the lost public sector funding. If 100s of Councils are out there then there must be a case for return on investment or they wouldn’t keep going. A Brighton MIPIM would be a fantastic result if it could be delivered. I suggest that if this event was anywhere else in the world there would be no fuss, this is sensationalist reporting from BH news and is damaging to efforts to bring investment into the city.
Really Mark, would any council officer expect anything more than bad judgement from Geoff Raw. And clearly he’s looking for another job after only being in position for a few weeks…check out his quote “…. I think it’s worth coming here for my own career…” So yet again Brighton Council will be on the look out for new boss and no doubt they will be even worse as no one is coming here to such a poisoned chalice
Great to see somebody out flying the flag for Brighton and Hove at last! Finally there is a Council which takes securing inward investment into the city seriously. That’s how both public and private funding for infrastructure and development in the city will be secured. Want world class transport infrastructure? Need to get the funding from somewhere. Where do people want Brighton & Hove to be in 30 years time? Forgotten and superseded by other coastal towns (a bit like Hastings or Margate) or punching its weight and remaining competing with Barcelona, Paris and so forth. I know what I’d like to see, no doubt Save Hove would be happy to be see this city become the next decaying sea side relic with high unemployment and deprivation. Not something I would wish on Brighton & Hove. Let’s unashamedly look to the future and actually set about creating a vision for the future city.