A report by the LGiU and Zurich Municipal (pdf) published late last year found that councils are increasingly concerned about their management of risk.

In a national survey undertaken with over 90 councils, 50 per cent of respondents described their organisations as ‘risk averse’. You might say that a certain level of risk aversion is healthy for an organisation holding responsibility for large sums of public money, and undoubtedly councils cannot afford to cultivate a laissez faire attitude to risk. Equally however, complete aversion to risk can stifle innovation.