Steven Mair has an honours degree and is a qualified accountant with a masters degree in business administration. He has worked for Westminster City Council for 2 years having previously worked for a number of other Local and Health Authorities across Greater Manchester and West and South Yorkshire in a wide range of financial and management roles

Steven is the S151 officer for the Council and has taken the lead in transforming the Council’s financial services. Particular developments in the first two years include: restructuring the finance service, reducing its cost base significantly while driving up quality with a focus on raising skills, aspirations, achievements and reputation. Issuing on the 9 April 2016 the earliest ever public sector accounts (2015/16), also exceeding over 90% of the FTSE 100 and at the same time radically improving quality. Reducing debtor arrears by over 11%, balancing the 2016/17 budget and developing a comprehensive training and development programme among other matters

Previously at Oldham MBC Steven transformed the financial service radically improving the pace and quality of the accounts over 5 years, concluding the budget process sooner than ever before in the face of the growing austerity challenges while a number of PFI and other deals were successfully accomplished. Steven was also lead officer for welfare reform and the introduction of business units across the Council, transforming services into more commercially focused operations better able to contribute to Council objectives, service improvements and budget reductions

Steven was prior to that the Programme Director for Building Schools for the Future at Barnsley Council as well as Assistant Executive Director in Children’s Services leading on all resource and infrastructure functions. The Barnsley BSF programme was a £1bn plus contract, closing and replacing all secondary and special schools in the borough and was the largest impact authority wide scheme in the country. Steven also designed, introduced and operated the Council’s nationally acclaimed school’s brokerage service

Previous experiences include a range of financial management and audit roles in Leeds, Kirklees and Calderdale Councils/Health Authorities