One of the few advantages of the COVID crisis was the opportunity to catch up on a few of the classics. Metropolis by Fritz Lang describes a dystopian future where the rich elite are isolated from the hard working drones who labour for little.

‘Working from home’ now seems to be one of the most widespread consequences of the pandemic for huge numbers of professional workers. While presenting challenges it has removed for many the daily grind of the commute and saved hours of down time. However, in local government there is a clear divide between those able to take advantage from ‘WFH’ and those who could not. Most of those we have clapped for the last 18 months were part of a firm frontline who could not isolate themselves: care workers, refuse collectors, street cleaners and social workers were among the thousands who had no choice but to continue working in the streets and offices of our towns.