Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Croydon Council faces more upheaval as the executive in charge of town centre regeneration resigns, adding to leadership instability.
The sixth senior director at Fisher’s Folly to leave the council in recent months is Nazyeya Hussain, the council official in charge of planning and, eventually, town center regeneration. Many of these resignations have occurred in tandem with the appointment of government-appointed Commissioners to the financially strapped council.
Since last November, Hussain has been employed in Croydon. Katherine Kerswell, the chief executive of the council, hired her as the interim director of sustainable communities, regeneration, and economic recovery. Kerswell has made a number of high-paying temporary appointments using her assigned authority without consulting the elected council members’ cross-party council committee. Kerswell’s selections haven’t always worked out.
Hussain follows Elaine Jackson, Kerswell’s highly dependable deputy CEO, Jane West, Croydon’s chief finance official, and “Interim Adam” Wilkinson, who served as the council’s top planning official for only a few months before this website revealed that he had a less-than-ideal relationship with the tax man.
Then came Karen Agbabiaka, who has been the council’s head of highways and parking since November 2023, and Huw Rhys Lewis, BSc, BArch, MSc, MRIBA, MAPM, MRICS, who was unsuccessful in his attempt to sell off a large portion of the council’s property holdings.
Both Wilkinson and Agbabiaka had worked in the directorate that Hussain controlled; insiders claimed that Agbabiaka’s departure was caused by a “dispute of personalities” with her immediate supervisor.
The news of Hussain’s imminent departure was shared with council staff in Kerswell’s weekly waffle on Friday.
Unlike the fond and warm farewell messages for the likes of Jackson and West, Kerswell’s note about Hussain, while including a few of the expected platitudes, was a little more brusque.
“A staffing update to let you all know that our interim corporate director of sustainable communities, regeneration and economic recovery, Nazyeya Hussain, will sadly be leaving toward the end of November,”
Kerswell wrote.
“Naz has been a fantastic addition to Croydon, driving forward our growth plan and town centre regeneration.”
That’ll be the six kiosks in Allders…
Hussain’s non-executive director position at Solace, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers, has long been accused of keeping her “distracted” when she was at Croydon. It’s now clear that Hussain has been looking for greater opportunities elsewhere for a significant portion of her time at Fisher’s Folly.
Council workers were “shocked” by Hussain’s abrupt departure, despite the fact that she had not impressed the diligent staff. Hussain was characterized as “nothing more than a saleswoman.” I don’t believe she was popular in general.
Particularly in Hussain’s directorate, the churn on the seventh level of Fisher’s Folly symbolizes a catastrophe for Kerswell.
All this is happening as Croydon is still working on finalising a revised Local Plan, is waiting on a decision from the GLA over the massive Purley retirement home scheme, and is supposed to be getting the third (or is it fourth?) planning application from Westfield for regeneration of the Whitgift Centre.
“When it comes to looking out for the interests of the borough as a whole,”
one Katharine Street source said today,
“you can see why developers look at the council and say ‘the lights are on, but no one’s at home’.”
Who is replacing the regeneration exec at Croydon Council?
Croydon Council has not informed about a replacement for Nazyeya Hussain, who is leaving her role as executive director for regeneration. Hussain was promoted to the interim director of sustainable communities, regeneration, and economic recovery position in November 2024. She will leave at the end of November 2025.
There has been a lot of turnover in the ranks of senior executives under Chief Executive Katherine Kerswell, and there have been several interim appointments, many of which are made under Kerswell’s delegated authority without the entire council committee processes.
This means that the commitments of being in transition regarding key posts, including the regeneration executive director role, are being covered by either an interim director or managing director role.