At Newcastle City Council we have just launched our medium-term plan for consultation. Shaping our future together sets out the council's priorities and how it will provide public services over the next three years.

This is against a backdrop of great political and economic uncertainty, which makes it very challenging. But waiting for a period of stability seems even more risky. It precedes external drivers such as the provisional grant settlement; the Green Paper on Adult Social Care; the Spending Review and the Fair Funding Review, to name a few.