The former Prime Minister's General Election announcement on 22 May was drowned out by ‘Things Can Only Get Better', but since 4 July we've probably all been trying to work out whether that's true.

There's always an air of optimism with a change of Government, and so it was with a spring in my step that I approached the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) Saving Local Government Finance Summit on the same day as the King's Speech.