Civil servant with a talent for finance

Neil Newton attended King Edward VII Grammar School before going on to Leeds University where he earned an economics degree which would help to launch a local authority and Government career.

After qualifying as a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance, he served as finance director with a series of councils before leaving the public sector to spend several years in business.

He returned to local authority work in 1990, helping to guide the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham which was facing financial problems and was eventually appointed managing director of that authority.

He retired from full-time work in 2000, but since then the Government has used him in a series of roles in helping to turn around weak local authorities. In the years leading up to the South Yorkshire Trading Standards Unit scandal, he was also called upon to oversee three other reviews into major financial irregularities.