Nick Forbes admits he came close to quitting as Newcastle’s council leader almost a decade ago, when he was embroiled in a cuts row that saw him battling the likes of Sting, Bryan Ferry, and Mark Knopfler.
The Labour chief’s 11 years in charge at the city council will come to an end in May, bowing out from the top job amid a party split that saw him deselected in his Arthur’s Hill ward.
But the 48-year-old has revealed that his political career was almost cut short years earlier, amid an arts funding clash in which some of the North East's most revered cultural icons lined up against him.
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A host of famous figures, led by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall, decried the local authority’s plans to slash all of its funding to arts organisations in the city back in late 2012, as civic centre officials sought to shave £100m off their spending bill in the early days of austerity.
The furore saw Coun Forbes catapulted into the national spotlight as a ‘king of cuts’, with services like libraries and leisure centres also on the chopping block, and accused of exaggerating the scale of savings needed in order to further his own career.
Nearly 10 years on from that controversy, and having since seen the council’s cuts balloon to well over £300m and thousands of jobs go, the outgoing council leader reflected that opponents “couldn’t imagine the scale of the impact” back then.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after announcing his exit from Newcastle politics, he said: “It is ironic that the arts cuts got the national attention, not the reductions in Sure Start or libraries or frontline services.
“That was a particularly unpleasant and uncomfortable time. Looking back, I wish I had the maturity and understanding of how things worked that I do now going into the situation then.
“There was a pretty low point, a point where I nearly resigned over it.
“But that would not have changed the financial situation, it would not have altered the cuts we needed to make.
“And ultimately the solutions we came up with around helping our arts institutions develop more of their own revenue streams and have capital loan facilities have seen all of them get through, and Newcastle still has a thriving cultural arts scene.
“People attributed all sorts of political motives to me at that time, but probably I was just a little bit naive.”
Despite his tenure as council leader coming amid a time of unprecedented cuts, plus the devastating impact of a global pandemic, Coun Forbes says he has “always sought to challenge the notion that Newcastle is somehow in decline” and wanted to “put Newcastle on the regional and national map in a way that the city hasn’t been for decades”.
The Cambridge graduate, who grew up in Weardale, added that he was “determined that we would not be a victim” and had tried to build confidence in the city as a place for businesses to invest.
A “groundbreaking” City Deal was negotiated with the Government back in 2012 and helped pave the way for major regeneration projects like the Newcastle Helix site on the former Scottish and Newcastle Brewery, while a Newcastle Living Wage was introduced for the council’s lowest earners.
He has since set a target of the city reaching net zero emissions by 2030 and wants Newcastle to be at the forefront of a green energy revolution.
Coun Forbes, the city’s first openly LGBT council leader, said: “When I was growing up in the 80s and early 90s I was told by my careers teacher at school that, if we wanted a decent career, we would have to move away from the region.
“I don’t want kids growing up in our school system now to feel that they have to move away for career opportunities. I want people growing up in the city now that they can have a career here, put down roots here, earn a decent living here, and enjoy the quality of life we have here.”
He was also a key figure in the signing of a £600m devolution deal for the North of Tyne area, though was unsuccessful in his own bid to become the region’s mayor.
While the deal did not give local leaders in Newcastle, North Tyneside, and Northumberland as wide-ranging powers and funding as other parts of England, after a broader scheme for the wider North East broke down at the 11th hour, Coun Forbes says failing to secure anything at all would have left us “15 years behind”.
With the prospect of councils south of the river being brought back on board and a new North East mayor being elected in 2024 now very much on the table, Coun Forbes believes it is “imperative” to get the framework of a new deal in place before he steps away in May.
He said: “The North of Tyne devolution deal has planted a flag for devolution and shown what can be done with relatively modest resources at a local level, in a way that can’t be by central Government.
“One of the things I really want to achieve by the time I leave is a commitment to a bigger devolution deal on a bigger footprint, more ambitious in terms of content, and one that will future proof and grow the economy of the region.
“While the North of Tyne was an important step forward, I don’t think anybody saw it as the job finished.”
Newcastle Labour councillors are due to elect Coun Forbes’ successor next week, though he will remain as council leader until the end of his term.
While he has no firm plans for his next move, after a whirlwind month that has brought his local authority career to an abrupt close, he insists he is “still very committed to Newcastle and to the Labour Party”.
He added: “I would love to find some kind of new role in which I can continue to help the city to achieve more.
“In the short term, I need a rest. After 11 years, I am exhausted and I am looking forward to a few weeks over the summer where I don’t have to think about the 20 complex problems I have to solve that day.”
