Councils are under immense pressure from the government, local communities and the private sector to ensure their towns and villages survive and thrive. And with shrinking budgets and reticent lenders, it can be hard for both local authorities and private developers to unlock the funding necessary to meet the needs of their stakeholders.

The current consensus is that development partnerships between the public and private sectors are the key to delivering housing, town centre regeneration and other development projects when funding is difficult to come by. But for those partnerships to succeed, councils need to be prepared to lead.