Councillor James Naish

Although I was born in Sheffield after a last-minute transfer from Bassetlaw Hospital (I’m a triplet and there weren’t enough incubators for all three of us!), I grew up in Bassetlaw in the village of South Wheatley which is in Sturton Ward. I was first elected to represent this ward in May 2019 and now live in the house where I grew up.

After studying history at university, I started work as a management consultant in Lincoln in 2009 and joined a graduate scheme in London in 2011. I’ve subsequently worked for a range of household names such as Barclaycard, Shell, Thames Water, Lloyds, TSB, SSE, RSA and others. I returned to live in the area in 2015 to support a couple of family businesses – and now split my time between those, consulting and council work.

As Leader of the Council, my job is to set the direction for the local authority. Since I become Leader in September 2022, we've been developing a vision for Bassetlaw through to 2040 and, after re-election in May 2023, we will be working hard to deliver this. I am immensely proud of the work that I've done with the West Burton Residents' Planning Group which helped to bring the multi-billion-pound STEP fusion energy programme to Bassetlaw, and will be aiming to use this as a catalyst for growth and investment across the district as a whole. Other successes in recent months include receiving £3.4m of UK Shared Prosperity Fund money, £18m of Levelling Up Fund money and undertaking a £1m+ refurbishment of the Council's main offices to make them more energy efficient and cost-effective, meaning more money can be spent annually on residents' priorities. 

I am always happy to speak to residents and businesses directly but, among other things, I am a point of escalation for councillors when things get 'stuck' - so please engage your ward councillor(s) first before reaching out to me whenever possible.

As it states in the vision document for 2040, I believe that 2023 to 2040 will be a defining period for Bassetlaw due to the sizeable investment coming to our area. Together, we can do something that will radically change lives and I look forward to playing my part in making this happen.