As the dust settles on new leaderships across many of the country's local authorities, teams will be looking at their council strategies and updating them to reflect new priorities and campaign pledges.  They will be faced with financial challenges as they realise how much – or little – is left after the statutory functions of the authority have been fulfilled and will also have to consider the changed landscape of a post-COVID world.

The majority of councils have now declared a climate (and in some cases an ecological) emergency and some have embarked on ambitious plans or started consultations with their communities.