We've used up all the clichés: we've picked the low-hanging fruit; the salami has all been sliced, we've cut to the bone. We cannot afford to do more with less, so we need to do differently with less.

The trouble is that we might not be the right people to work out what exactly ‘different' means. That's the premise behind Towards Outside-in, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives' (SOLACE) new report from its innovation and commissioning policy network.