Now the Budget has been put to bed for another year I have a bit more time on my hands and have been able to reflect on the past year with an amount of pride for my finance team who have, despite the additional COVID resource requirement, delivered a huge amount: an Oracle cloud implementation; a 2021-22 budget and a medium-term financial plan; an unqualified set of accounts; a new set of financial regulations; a new scheme of delegation and a balanced 2021-21 budget (give or take).

The team is also supporting a whole council transformation; outcomes resourcing; carbon accounting; activity mapping – not to mention trying to manage all those dozens of COVID grants.