North Tyneside chief executive Patrick Melia's career spent in local government, police, probation and health perhaps explains why he is an enthusiastic proponent of joined-up government and the single pot. To him austere budgets are an opportunity to reconfigure service provision.

As he says: ‘Don't think about cutting, think about redesigning.What's frustrating is that we haven't used the opportunity to combine resources across departments or across sectors like health and care. We manage budgets in silos. If you look at education and welfare, they're all touching the same services.'