Kerslake qualified as a member of the
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and went on to hold a number of posts with councils in London before becoming chief executive of the
London Borough of Hounslow. He then moved to
Sheffield to take up the post of chief executive of
Sheffield City Council in 1997. From 2008 to 2010 he was chief executive of the
Homes and Communities Agency, and in September 2010 was appointed
permanent secretary of the
Department for Communities and Local Government. In December 2014 he was appointed the chair of
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, to begin in June 2015. He was introduced as a
crossbench life peer in the
House of Lords on 17 March 2015, and in October 2016, he became chair of the board of governors at
Sheffield Hallam University. In July 2017, Kerslake was appointed chair of the independent investigation of the
Manchester Arena bombing. The results of the investigation were published in a report, commonly referred to as the Kerslake Report, in March 2018. In December 2017, Kerslake resigned as chair of King's College Hospital Trust saying he protested at the "dire
NHS funding problems", and calling for "a fundamental rethink [of] ... the way that the NHS is funded and organised". Shortly afterward, reports surfaced that he had been asked to resign by the chair of NHS Improvement two days previously owing to the trust's "poor financial performance". From July 2018, Kerslake chaired the
UK2070 Commission focusing on city and regional inequalities in the UK. In 2019 he became chair of the
New Economics Foundation. In 2022, he became chair of Stockport Mayoral Development (MDC). In 2023, it was reported that he had been working with the
Labour Party in preparation for the
2024 general election. == Death ==