Woking Borough Council Commissioners have been reappointed after ministers welcomed progress in governance, housing and commercial restructuring. Improvement now looks most reassuring when officials can place it in a folder and review it again.
Woking Borough Council Commissioners prepare another report
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published its response to the Commissioners’ fifth report on 11 December 2025. The minister confirmed the reappointment of Sir Tony Redmond as Lead Commissioner and Richard Carr as Managing Director Commissioner.
The minister welcomed Woking’s commitment to its Improvement and Recovery Plan. The response also noted the successful setting of the 2025/26 budget. The budget has achieved the local government equivalent of standing still while receiving a certificate for forward motion.
Governance, housing and commercial restructuring all showed progress. That sounds encouraging. Progress has finally acquired enough headings to receive regular monitoring.
The fictional Oswald Ledgerstone, Assistant Commissioner for Managed Optimism, would file this under “moving forward”. He would then request a progress update on the movement.
The response asks the next report to consider Surrey’s local government reorganisation. It also asks how the government could support new councils in meeting their Best Value duty from day one.
Woking Borough Council Commissioners keep the paperwork moving
That creates a beautiful institutional challenge. A new council must begin well, inherit complicated responsibilities and satisfy every duty. It must also understand the machinery around it while the paperwork explains which machinery has moved.
Woking Borough Council Commissioners now occupy the purest form of public sector achievement. They have completed a successful review of continuing improvement. They must now commission another review of how improvement should continue through reorganisation.
The contradiction does not need a fictional official to explain it. Institutions can celebrate progress and still demand a fresh document before anyone treats progress as portable.
By the time the next report arrives, Best Value may have reached day one at last, only to discover that day one is waiting in reception for its terms of reference.
Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
