It’s a daunting job, but Redbridge’s new chief executive seems calm and optimistic but also realistic.

Four weeks into the role, Andy Donald has identified the task in hand – improving customer service, tackling fly-tipping and solving the housing crisis, while saving millions from the budget.

“Redbridge has been pretty resilient so far, I don’t see that services have fallen over at all,” he said.

“We’ve had considerable pressures to save millions and millions of pounds, which means we have to think differently.”

The 45-year-old, whose whole career has been in local government, was most recently strategic director of regeneration and growth at Brent Council, where he was responsible for the regeneration around the new Wembley Stadium.

Part of this included consolidating 14 council buildings into one new civic centre, cutting 83 per cent of paper use to save money and bringing in flexible working for staff.

“We have to be more entrepreneurial about the way we go about our business and the way we think about services,” said Mr Donald.

For the full interview see tomorrow’s Recorder.