Councillor Ordered To Publicly Declare Rental Properties

Rental properties belonging to an Isle of Wight councillor will now have to be publicly revealed, despite her efforts to keep the information private.

Monitoring officer Christopher Potter has asked Reform UK representative Caroline Gladwin, who is on the housing committee, for a list of her current rental properties immediately or by January 31 at the latest.

Mr Potter’s decision comes after a memorandum signed by 18 councillors was sent to interim monitoring officer Francis Fernandes protesting ‘the failure of Reform UK councillor Caroline Gladwin to declare her rental properties with her published Declaration of Interests’.

The member for Central Rural previously faced criticism after it emerged the council had served her warning notices in early 2023 under the Housing Act, relating to the state of a flat she was letting.

The register of interests page on County Hall’s website for Cllr Gladwin currently reads ‘Sensitive Interest – Exemption by permission of the Deputy Monitoring Officer’ in response to the question: ‘do you have land or property within the Isle of Wight?’

At a heated planning committee meeting last September, Mr Fernandes told members:

“Cllr Gladwin has declared her rental properties to the monitoring officer and those interests haven’t been put on the public register because there’s an issue about sensitivity.”

But in a January 19 email to councillors, Mr Potter wrote:

“Further to the query raised last year about the categorisation of rental properties in which the relevant councillor has a beneficial interest, I have finished my review.

“I am not persuaded that the legal test under section 32 of the Localism Act 2011 is satisfied in the particular circumstances, and so I do not regard such interests as sensitive.

“Accordingly, I have requested an update list of current rental properties to be given to me by the relevant councillor forthwith or by January 31 at the latest.”

Independent Socialist councillor Geoff Brodie said the ruling is hopefully the ‘beginning of the end of pandering to Reform UK’ ahead the next local elections.

Cllr Brodie, in an email to memorandum signatories, said it had taken him more than six months to get to this “obvious conclusion” and shows Reform UK councillors can be stood up to by a strong council officer when they try to “ignore the rules, as they tend to do all over the UK”.

Cllr Brodie said he intends to return to County Hall for two full council meetings before his term of office ends after previously calling time on his council chamber attendance, citing “intimidation” and witnessing “pandering” to Reform UK.

Cllr Gladwin has been contacted for comment.