Perhaps my expectations were too high, but when retail tycoon Sir Philip Green's public sector efficiency review was published, I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Clearly, Sir Philip is a highly-skilled businessman, well suited to offering advice on efficiency.

But I didn't read much that I didn't already known in lise that Whitehall is a ‘different business' from local government, and there is more councils can do – and are doing – to be more efficient, but I had been hoping Sir Philip's review would provide more food for thought from a local authority perspective. He found there was no centralised approach to procurement, buying power was not being used fully, and commercial skills across departments were inconsistent.