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Philippa Roe, Baroness Couttie

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The Right Honourable
The Baroness Couttie
Official portrait, 2018
Leader of Westminster City Council
In office
4 March 2012 – 26 January 2017
Preceded byColin Barrow
Succeeded byNickie Aiken
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
5 September 2016 – 12 December 2022
Life peerage
Councillor (Knightsbridge and Belgravia Ward)
In office
2006–2014
Personal details
Born
Philippa Marion Roe

(1962-09-25)25 September 1962
Hampstead, London, England
Died12 December 2022(2022-12-12) (aged 60)
Political partyConservative
Spouses
  • John Ricketts
    ​
    (before 2002)​
  • Stephen Couttie
    ​
    (m. 2002)​
Children2
Parent
Alma materUniversity of St Andrews (MA)
Occupation

Philippa Marion Roe, Baroness Couttie (25 September 1962 – 12 December 2022) was a British Conservative politician, who served as Leader of Westminster City Council from 2012 to 2017. Before entering public life she was an investment banker with Citigroup.

Early life and education

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Born in Hampstead and educated at the University of St Andrews, Roe was a director of Citigroup before entering politics in 2006.[1] The daughter of James Roe and former Conservative MP Dame Marion Roe, Philippa had a younger sister and younger brother.[2][3] In 1982, she became the first student in 572 years to be elected to the University of St Andrews Senate, the institution's governing body.

Career

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After leaving university, Roe began her career in the public relations industry, joining Burson Marsteller.

In the 1990s, she served on a panel of experts from the private sector consulted by the Conservative government in establishing the private finance initiative,[4] and in 2004 Roe was the joint author of a report called "Reforming the Private Finance Initiative", published by the Centre for Policy Studies.[5]

Roe gave up her job at Citigroup when she became the mother of twins. In 2006, soon after this, Roe was elected to Westminster City Council, representing the three-member Knightsbridge and Belgravia ward, a safe seat for her party.[6][7] At that time, she had recently recovered from cancer.[7][3]

She was appointed a governor of Imperial College London[1] and in 2008 became the member of Westminster's cabinet for Housing. In May 2010, Roe was re-elected as a councillor, and in June that year, she stated her support for the new coalition government's decision to cap housing benefit at £400 a week.[6][8] In 2011, she took on the cabinet portfolio of Strategic Finance. The next year she succeeded Colin Barrow as Leader of the council, beating Edward Argar for the nomination,[9] and quickly distanced herself from a comparison with a predecessor, Dame Shirley Porter.[10]

The same year, she took over the role of chairman of the statutory Health and Wellbeing Board for Westminster.[11] She also sat on the London Enterprise Panel.[12] In 2013, she was quoted as saying that "local people know best"[13] and that "The funding challenge is an opportunity to break free of orthodoxy and review all the services provided and how they can be delivered more efficiently."[14]

She was re-elected as a councillor in 2014 and topped the poll, with the Conservative ward candidates taking 79.6 per cent of the vote. She did not stand as a councillor at the 2018 election.[6]

In July 2015, Roe announced that she was seeking her party's nomination to stand as Mayor of London at the May 2016 election.[15][16] However, she was not shortlisted by the Conservatives.[17][18]

Roe was nominated for a life peerage in David Cameron's Resignation Honours and was created Baroness Couttie, of Downe in the County of Kent, on 5 September 2016.[19][20] Couttie was the surname of her husband Stephen.[7]

Personal life and death

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Roe married Stephen Couttie, a partner in the private equity firm Collabrium Capital, in September 2002. After fertility treatment in the United States, she gave birth to twins, Angus and Genevieve (Evie), in August 2005.[7]

Baroness Couttie died of cancer on 12 December 2022, at the age of 60. Several of her former council colleagues paid tribute to her.[21][22][3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Lydall, Ross (9 March 2012). "I can run London's top council but still get home in time to put the children to bed". Evening Standard. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  2. ^ Country Life dated 12 February 1987, p. 53: "Miss Philippa Roe, elder daughter of Mr James Roe and Mrs Roe, MP, of Petleys, Downe, Kent, and Temple House, Theobalds Park, Hertfordshire..."
  3. ^ a b c "Baroness Couttie, leader of Westminster council and former banker who changed tack after serious illness – obituary". The Telegraph. 16 December 2022. (subscription required)
  4. ^ "Philippa Roe". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  5. ^ E. R. Yescombe, Public-Private Partnerships: Principles of Policy and Finance (2011, ISBN 0080489575), p. 332 (bibliography); "Reforming the Private Finance Initiative" is quoted by Simon Jenkins in his Thatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts (2007), at p. 137
  6. ^ a b c Teale, Andrew. "Knightsbridge and Belgravia Ward". Local Elections Archive Project. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d Riley-Smith, Ben. "My journey from cancer hell to the joy of twins, by Tory hoping to become the new Boris". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 13 December 2022. (subscription required)
  8. ^ Roe, Philippa (24 June 2010). "Housing benefit cap was needed". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  9. ^ Ben Bloom, Philippa Roe to become new Westminster Council leader dated 1 March 2012 at hamhigh.co.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2015
  10. ^ Hetherington, Peter (13 March 2012). "Westminster's new leader hits back at 'social cleansing' accusations". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  11. ^ House of Commons, The Role of Local Government in Health Issues (Report of Communities and Local Government Committee, 2013), p. Ev 37
  12. ^ Cabinetat westminster.gov.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2015 Archived 10 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "Leader of Westminster sets out her vision for the future". The Guardian. 15 January 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  14. ^ John Brown, Pat Gaudin, Wendy Moran, PR and Communication in Local Government and Public Services (2013, ISBN 0749466170), p. 256
  15. ^ Foot, Tom. Westminster Council leader Philippa Roe puts forward bid to be next Tory Mayor in West End Extra dated 10 July 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015
  16. ^ Crerar, Pippa (24 July 2015). "Tory mayoral hopeful: I would give more power to London's town halls". Evening Standard. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  17. ^ "London mayoral race: Tories shortlist four candidates". BBC News. 25 July 2015. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  18. ^ Marshall, Tom (25 July 2015). "Sol Campbell fails to make Tory shortlist for London Mayor candidate". Evening Standard. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  19. ^ https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/543973/resignation_peerages_2016.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  20. ^ "No. 61700". The London Gazette. 9 September 2016. p. 19232.
  21. ^ "Statement on the death of former City of Westminster leader Philippa Roe". Westminster City Council. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  22. ^ "Baroness Couttie obituary". The Times. 15 December 2022. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
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