Today's austerity climate demands commercialisation strategies and partnerships within local government that will deliver increased efficiencies as well as boost income. Recognising this, 94% of authorities now share some services with another authority and 58% own a trading company.

Our 2016 report, The Commercial Imperative, examined how reduced central government funding has driven local government senior management teams to adopt commercial strategies and identify alternative income streams to plug the funding gap. However, a lot has happened in the last year, including the continued tightening of public sector belts and the impact of Article 50 being triggered. In light of this, Civica hosted a recent Leadership Forum with over 20 senior leaders across the public sector to discuss how the landscape has changed and whether the success factors outlined in the original report were still valid.