To give true justice to his duties at Socitm, Newham has agreed to hire an interim CIO to keep Steel's work at the council on course. "There is a benefit to Newham, it helps to enhance the reputation of the borough and some of the influence and the networking will rub off on Newham. We have been long-time members and have benefited so we are giving something back. I hope most local government bodies would do the same," he says.

Newham is, for first time possibly in its history, in the world's focus, as it is set to host the 2012 Olympics. Steel is optimistic about the games and realistic about what it is doing for his borough. "For the first time we have some negotiation muscle. The private sector goes where it can get the best investment, with 2012 people want to work with us so they can get a bit of the games action."

Steel arrived in the Newham after a career at investment banking giants Morgan Grenfell, where he was assistant director. He was made redundant after choosing not to move, but you get the feeling he was looking for something else. "At Morgan Grenfell we felt chosen and that we could walk on water, but the Guinness scandal shook the comfort zone out," he said. Having been laid off, Steel took his time selecting the next career move. Newham may sound like a strange choice. "I wanted to fix things. Newham was a chance to broaden my experience, I thought I'd only be here two years," he says of the organization he joined in 1989.

"When I joined I had the same luddite views of the public sector being full of work-shy skivers. There were a few, but on the whole there was innovation and a different attitude to managing a budget," he says. And there needed to be. At Morgan Grenfell he managed an IT budget of £47 million, on entering Newham his budget was £5 million. "You had to find ways to deliver."

He never once complains about this budget deficit though and ask Steel about his career at Newham and it's a positive story of working with people, not just IT. "When I first started working in Stratford I had this weird feeling. I couldn't place it at first before I realized it was having kids around. You never see a child in the city."

With Newham Steel has been able to innovate. Unlike many borough councils which saw departments select an office automation tool to suit before a unified program was adopted for the entire authority, Steel went straight for a council-wide automation tool, side stepping a great deal of cost.