The visibility of finance within local government has never been so high, with a significant amount of reporting on the challenges we are all facing.

Interestingly, the narrative in the mainstream media does seem to be shifting and is recognising that despite many collective best efforts, there simply isn't enough money in the system to keep doing what we have always done. At some point there needs to be a sensible conversation about what local government is really here to do – in other words, what can we stop doing, as we just cannot continue to stretch our pounds to beyond breaking point.