A Norwich businessman with decades of experience in adult social care has been chosen to lead Norfolk County Council at a turbulent time for the Reform-run authority. Dennis Bacon, 63, is the preferred candidate to become the council’s new chief executive, subject to pre-employment checks and approval by the full council on 14 August. The role comes with a salary of £215,000 a year.
Bacon will take charge of one of Norfolk’s largest organisations. The county council covers more than 2,000 square miles, has a workforce of around 22,000 people, including school staff, and a gross revenue budget of £2.3bn this year. Its responsibilities range from children’s social care, SEND provision and school transport to highways, household recycling centres and waste disposal, libraries, trading standards and Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service.
Care experience in an ageing county
Adult social care is an especially significant responsibility in Norfolk, where around a quarter of residents are aged 65 or over, well above the national average. North Norfolk has the oldest population profile in England and Wales. Bacon’s extensive background in the care sector therefore gives him experience in one of the county council’s most important areas of responsibility. For 19 years he chaired the Norfolk Independent Care Association, which supports more than 600 organisations employing 11,000 staff in adult social care.
He has also sat on the Norfolk and Waveney Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, bringing together local NHS organisations and councils, and was the first independent-sector representative appointed to an NHS System Leadership Board. Bacon, who has also worked in banking and property, previously received an Outstanding Leadership in Public Services award from Norfolk County Council.
Locally, however, he may be better known as the entrepreneur behind the Norwich B&B ’38 St Giles’, which appeared on Channel 4’s Four in a Bed last year and won the competition.
Reform promises change
Bacon will inherit an authority facing considerable financial and organisational pressures. Norfolk County Council’s 2026/27 budget includes £42.3mn of savings alongside growing demands on services, particularly adult and children’s social care.
He will also arrive as the Reform administration pursues a programme of change at County Hall. Since taking control in May, it has begun reviews of spending on net-zero initiatives and working-from-home arrangements, scrapped political assistant posts and introduced restrictions governing flags and displays in council buildings. Reform has characterised its approach as a move away from “virtue signalling” and towards value for money and essential services.
Council leader David Bick said: “We were impressed with Dennis’s commercial and public sector experience, and his determination to lead the changes required at Norfolk County Council to ensure value for money and quality services for the residents of Norfolk.”
What those “changes required” will mean for the council’s workforce and services has not been specified.
An uncertain future
Bacon will also take charge with the future of Norfolk County Council itself unresolved. Government plans would abolish the county council and Norfolk’s seven district-level authorities, replacing them with three unitary councils from April 2028.
The Reform administration strongly opposes the reorganisation and has applied for a judicial review of the government’s decision. But bringing the legal challenge does not itself halt the process, so preparations for the new authorities must continue unless the court intervenes or the challenge succeeds.
That creates an unusual situation at County Hall. While its political leadership fights to preserve Norfolk County Council, officers must continue preparing for its possible abolition. Work towards the transition includes planning how services, staff, assets and systems would transfer to the three new authorities, with shadow elections due to take place in May 2027.
Bacon could therefore find himself running an organisation whose political leadership is fighting for its survival, while simultaneously overseeing staff preparing for it to be dismantled. Many of those employees will also face uncertainty over their own futures as services are reorganised and roles transferred or potentially lost – presenting the new chief executive with a significant challenge in maintaining morale.
If the reorganisation goes ahead on the government’s timetable, Bacon’s own position will ultimately disappear too when Norfolk County Council ceases to exist in April 2028.
His appointment follows the sudden departure of former chief executive Tom McCabe, who quit less than two months after Reform swept to power at County Hall in May. Reports of frustrations among staff with the new administration have circulated since then. Reform has played down suggestions of tensions, but decisions including the removal of the Pride flag from County Hall and the review of working-from-home arrangements have proved controversial.
Recruitment process criticised
The recruitment itself has attracted criticism from opposition councillors. The post was advertised for 24 days before applications closed on 26 July, with around five candidates understood to have been interviewed.
Former council leader and current Conservative group leader Kay Mason Billig criticised what she described as the “extreme haste” of the process. She also objected to the Conservatives having no representative on the cross-party interview panel, which comprised two Reform councillors and one each from Great Yarmouth First, the Liberal Democrats and Greens.
Mason Billig subsequently complained to acting chief executive Kat Hulatt, who has held the position on an interim basis since McCabe’s departure. The council says applications for the permanent role were received from across the UK and overseas.
If approved by the full council on 14 August, Bacon could take up the role as early as September.
This article is adapted from a report by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
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