Chief executives are a positive bunch, at least publicly, as anyone attending last month's Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) annual conference can testify. Chief executives don't do doom and gloom; optimism is part of their job description. Considering the challenges lined up for them and their staff, they can act no other way; Henry V did not motivate his troops into battle with a cry of ‘we're all doomed!'

But away from the public gaze chief executives are less sure of the future, summed up by one comment in a report as ‘we are in the best of times and the worst of times'. The report, Worlds apart: The 2016 senior managers' risk report by Zurich Municipal, formed part of a round table debate at SOLACE chaired by The MJ, in which leading chief executives aired their views on the future of the sector.