The Resilience, risk and resource-fulness workshop at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy's (CIPFA) conference in Manchester highlighted that a growing number of councils were commissioning independent financial resilience reviews because of unsustainable positions on their budgets after years of austerity.

Against this backdrop it is legitimate councils look for ways to be more commercial in their approach and more sustainable by generating alternative sources of funding. One way is through better commissioning, procurement and contracting. Another is establishing companies to generate income by trading our services to other public sector organisations. A growing dimension is borrowing to invest in commercial property and other ventures to generate a return. A number of critical questions must be asked regarding these developments.