There has been the usual rush of announcements coming fast and furious towards local government of late and there doesn't seem to be a day when there isn't some form of analysis that our finance teams are having to consider in super-quick time.

These haven't just been directly related to the Budget a few weeks back, where we saw all manner of new potential funding changes through business rate exemptions, grant changes and a host of other items sometimes hidden away once you got to the devil in the detail of what had been said. We also see announcements online on news channels around such areas as the business rates appeal case won by supermarkets on whether they should be liable for business rates on cash machines located on their premises before this came to us through our usual professional sources.