When I speak to leaders and activists from the local voluntary and community sector (VCS), I am increasingly struck by the similarity of questions and concerns they are raising. Many of them relate to local government and the localist agenda.

Of course, there are the inevitable (and justified) concerns about the lack of sufficient funding and financial support and the quality of commissioning and procurement. These two sets of issues are not new and they need to be addressed. For me, however, dig deeper and five core questions keep arising which are both more interesting and more fundamental.