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Published: 6 May, 2010
EXCLUSIVE by RICHARD OSLEY

THE Town Hall’s top brass was left shocked last night (Wednesday) as the man in charge of its massive housing and social services department walked away from the job – just seven months after being appointed.
Director Jim Wintour, 62, is said to have stunned chief executive Moira Gibb by telling her of his sudden plans to retire from local government work.
Other colleagues said they were “gobsmacked” as the news filtered through council circles late last night.
The Town Hall insisted there was no suggestion that Mr Wintour been forced out or that there had been arguments at the top. Instead his departure was explained as his “personal decision”.
His exit, however, is understood to have caught the inner circle of chief officers who run the council completely off guard, as Mr Wintour had only so recently taken up the job, a post that can command a salary of £158,000 a year.
As the head of a crucial and highly scrutinised department, he would have been at the forefront of Camden’s response to budget constraints facing all local authorities in the coming months.

One leading councillor has told the New Journal in recent weeks “keeping Jim Wintour is the key” to the smooth running of the housing share of the department, which has been bashed from pillar to post particularly for its controversial programme of selling off council homes.
Mr Wintour, brother of world famous Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and respected Guardian political journalist Patrick, was seen by many tenants as one of the few top officers who genuinely took on board their concerns.
His sudden exit has left Ms Gibb with a jobs jigsaw to puzzle over. Mike Cooke, her deputy, will move to run the housing department while the search for Mr Wintour’s full-time replacement takes place, a process likely to take up to six months.
That will mean a new face will have to take over Mr Cooke’s human resources duties during the inevitable uncertainty of the months that follow the Town Hall elections and the possible creation of a new political coalition.
And there is a real prospect of a hitherto untested politician taking over the housing and social services portfolio.
Officials are acutely aware that stringent savings could be ordered soon after the new intake of councillors take office.
And they face a wait to see whether a new administration continues with the council home sales – or tears up one of the most divisive policies of the past four years.

Meric Apak, an ex-tenants leader in Kentish Town who campaigned against the sell-offs, said last night: “I think it is a loss for tenants. It was for the first time in a very long that we had a director who has been willing to come down and integrate and converse with tenants. He climbed down from his ivory towers, which is more than can be said for some of his predecessors.”
Mr Apak’s thoughts were mirrored among other surprised tenants. There will be hardly any notice period for Mr ­Wintour to serve and his final day will be in just over two weeks.
Most of the rank-and-file staff in the housing and adult services department will only learn of his plans to go today.
Ms Gibb was last night briefing councillors, who have spent the past month largely away from the Town Hall working on council election campaigns.
Mr Wintour has recently been in the thick of the council’s defence of its handling of the Jennyfer Spencer case, the woman left in a fifth-floor council flat despite being confined to a wheelchair and a string of other health problems.

He accused the New Journal of sensationalist reporting despite the public outcry surrounding the case.
Nevertheless, he was described last night in many quarters as an amiable director who had been a sensible recruit at Bidborough House and clearly part of plans to move forward.
A council press spokesman said: “Jim Wintour has taken the decision to retire with effect from 15 May 2010 and we would like to thank him for all of the good work he has undertaken over his time with Camden.
“Mike Cooke, Camden Council’s deputy chief executive will assume responsibility for the housing and adult social care brief on an interim basis until a new director is appointed.
“Mr Cooke will retain his position as deputy chief executive during this period.”