The Elected Mayor of Croydon

Role of the Elected Mayor

The directly elected Mayor provides leadership and direction to the borough and the Council and has overall responsibility for council policy and the delivery of services. 

The elected Mayor has a mandate to represent the whole borough and will speak on its behalf locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.  It will be for them to decide how this role will work in practice, within the boundaries set out in the Council’s Constitution.

The Mayor:

  • sets priorities and policies which are delivered by council officers who make operational decisions and work in partnership with other organisations. 
  • holds all executive powers but may delegate them to the Cabinet, cabinet committees, individual cabinet members and officers. One of the Mayor’s first decisions on being elected to office will be to decide upon a scheme of delegation.
  • is involved in the appointment of statutory officers and Corporate Directors in accordance with the constitutional and proportional political party representative requirements of the Appointments and Disciplinary Committee.  The statutory officers are the Chief Executive (Head of Paid Service), Section 151 Officer (Chief Finance Officer) and Monitoring Officer.
  • will promote, uphold and act in accordance with the Seven Principles of Public Life (the ‘Nolan Principles’), Members’ Code of Conduct and the Protocol on Staff-Councillor Relations.

The Council's Constitution sets out the Council's decision-making structures and rules.  Work was undertaken to revise this in readiness for the start of the elected Mayor's term of office to reflect the role and powers of the elected Mayor, as agreed by Full Council on 23 March 2022.

Appointment of deputy mayor and cabinet

The elected Mayor must appoint a deputy mayor who acts when they are unable to act. The Mayor must also appoint a cabinet of between 2 and 9 councillors, including the deputy mayor. 

The Mayor must decide the portfolios of the cabinet members: the cabinet does not need to be politically balanced. 

Powers reserved to Full Council

Certain decisions can only be made by the Full Council by law. The Mayor will make proposals to Full Council for: 

  • setting the budget and council tax, 
  • specified major policies (as set out in the budget and policy framework).

Like the executive, the Council can delegate those powers to committees and officers. 

Non-executive decisions

There are some Council functions which cannot legally be the responsibility of the Mayor: these are known as non-executive functions and include planning and licensing decisions.  Much of this work is carried out in Committees: members of these Committees are elected by Full Council and their Chairs are appointed from the Council at their first meetings.  More detail about the non-executive Committees can be found in the Constitution.  

Budget and policy framework

The council’s budget and policy framework sets out the policies and the budget which are for Full Council to decide. See the appendix to Article 4.02 in the constitution for the detailed list.  Part 4C of the Constitution shows the consultation process that the directly elected Mayor must go through before they bring proposals for these policies or the budget to Full Council for a decision.  It also includes the process which will apply if the Full Council does not agree the elected Mayor’s proposals for a budget or policy.