Steve Bullock

Steve Bullock is a trustee of the New Local Government Network. He is the directly elected mayor of Lewisham. He is also:

"Steve was elected as the London Borough of Lewisham’s first executive mayor in May 2002. His long involvement in local government has convinced him of the need for more open, accountable and effective local democracy. Steve is a committed European and serves as Secretary General of the Union of Socialist Elected Local and Regional Representatives in Europe. Locally he is a trustee of the renowned Horniman Museum and Greenvale Special School.

"Before becoming Mayor Steve worked for the Local Government Association where he was Head of the Labour Group Office. He was also Chair of University Hospital, Lewisham NHS Trust until October 2002. Steve was born in Redcar, North Yorkshire and grew up in nearby Marske-by-the-sea where his first involvement with local government was as a van driver for the Urban District Council. He now lives in Forest Hill, South London with his wife and three cats.

"Steve was Leader of the London Borough of Lewisham from 1988 to 1993. This followed six years as a councillor during which time he served as Chair of Finance, Chair of Leisure and Deputy Leader. He was also Chair of the Local Government Management Board for several years, Deputy Chair of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities and Chair of the Association of London Authorities. He has been a board member of the London Pension Fund Authority and the Independent Housing Ombudsman Service. In the early 90s, Steve was seen as the friendly face of local government in the BBC’s “fly on the wall” series ‘Town Hall’.

"He first came to London to work for the GLC and was at County Hall for 10 years until its abolition in 1986. For part of that time, he was Ken Livingstone’s policy assistant and played a key role in developing the ‘Fares Fair’ scheme. He was later Chief Officer of Greenwich Community Health Council. After giving up the LBL Leadership Steve established the Civic Skills consultancy and later worked as a consultant and trainer with the Capita Group. While a member of the Commission for Local Democracy chaired by Simon Jenkins, in 1996 he co-wrote with Professor Robin Hambleton a major report, ‘Revitalising Local Democracy – the Leadership Options’. This argued the case for the separation of the executive and representational roles of councillors."

Affiliations

• Chairman, University hospital Lewisham
• Former leader of Lewisham Council
• head of office for the Local Government Association Labour group in 2002 [1]

• Secretary General of the Union of Socialist Elected Local and Regional Representatives
• former member of the Commission for Local Democracy [2]

• Former consultant and trainer for Capita
• Formed Civic Skills consultancy [3]