It is traditional at this time of year to make predictions and resolutions. However, I am reminded of the comments ascribed to the baseball player Yogi Berra that ‘it's tough to make predictions, especially about the future'.

The current financial environ-ment for local government seems, to me, to be volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous. Therefore, in the face of the impact of Brexit on local government, the fair funding formula and the rates retention system, it hardly seems to make sense to try to predict much.