Creating a vision for most businesses is relatively straightforward and public services are no different in this regard world-class services at affordable prices. There are some critics who like to knock local government saying our services are poor, our staff are 'jobsworth' and we only have to pick up a tabloid to find echoes of this. However, the reality in terms of our performance is very different and much more positive.

My own council has undergone step change improvement and has recently been ranked as 'excellent' in a CPA refresh and what we see across most local authorities is a similar improvement better quality services with a real emphasis on customer care.

While there is no room for complacency or for being self congratulatory we should take time out to recognise the huge strides forward that are being taken and give the credit to our hardworking staff.

Our biggest challenge for the future however will be to maintain this upward curve but set against a much more difficult financial backdrop.

The new local government minister John Healey told the LGA conference 'the financial settlement will be tight and the discipline we expect on council tax will be similarly tight'. It is clear therefore that we will have to put much more focus on getting more with less! This will be challenging for all local authorities, but it will be particularly tricky for district councils because clearly size does matter when it comes to economy of scale.

However, this need not necessarily be an argument for the unitary path, it could just be a rallying call for shared services with neighbouring authorities, our county colleagues, other public sector organisations and the private sector.

I look forward to the challenge of the next few years with great optimism.

Cleary we will have to adapt, but the shared services agenda provides districts with the best of both worlds the 'small but beautiful' principle with economy of scale by combining our services with other public or private sector colleagues.

Service quality across local government has clearly improved in the last few years, and the next step will be getting even more for even less.

Bill Taylor is chief executive of West Lancashire DC