The ex-mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, has put on the ermine and declared his interests at the House of Lords. As I reported on March 4, 2025, his declarations included being paid by companies to which, as mayor, he had approved substantial contracts for and given away free land—Ameresco and Empire Fighting Chance respectively.

Three days later, there was news of ex-mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, being charged as one of ten people, with bribery offences that concern advantages given for the improper awarding of council contracts and other services.

I am not suggesting Rees has committed any offence because I don’t have any evidence to tell me what he did. Bristol City Council’s monitoring officer has shut down Rees’s email inbox, contrary to the council’s record retention policy and has even removed the availability of his blog and diary. It’s not easy, or even possible, for residents to investigate his behaviour. This needs to be done by the council and its mechanisms.

It is in the public interest that we know when these companies started paying him and how much he is earning from work linked to how he exercised his power as mayor.

All residents can do is examine what is in the public domain. The local news have not covered it, even though it is newsworthy and of public interest.

Private Eye has covered it.

In their 19/03 edition, the story of Rees’s interests is on the first page (actually p.7). The Lord of Easton has brought his new area into the limelight.

Private Eye are right about the contract going from £12 billion to £1 billion. The first £12 billion tender was re-procured at a lower cost of £2 billion after the energy company BCC wanted to package with it, collapsed. Then it went down to £1 billion.

This is still the highest value contract on the Proactis site, which publishes public contracts.

There was also an earlier contract with Ameresco signed off by BCC. It was £1m for photovoltaic solar panels and signed off in 2021.

The questions still stand: how much is Rees being paid and when did the payments begin?

Three and Two Ltd was set up while the ex-mayor was still in office, 19 April 2024. This means his interests should have been registered.

Two questions for three decisions the ex-mayor’s administration made. It’s in the public interest that we know.

Former Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees has been appointed by the University of Bristol’s Cabot Institute for the Environment as an Honorary Industrial Professor to help advance the climate change agenda, “harnessing his global networks”.