It can sometimes be difficult to balance much-needed focus on day-to-day council business with spending time outside one's own organisation, learning from others and reflecting on future challenges.

This tension has been particularly acute for me in the last couple of weeks as we received some positive news about our plans for a new garden community – we have been included on the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government programme –and are preparing for a visit from Homes England in connection with our bid to the Housing Infrastructure Fund for around £57m for an upgrade to Junction 6 of the M25.