To be the best, you need the best people. This makes training and development vital to every local authority. Yet in an era of further financial belt-tightening, we know it is a huge temptation for councils to cut their staff training budgets. Don't. It is a trap. 

An example of this false economy? When a multi-million-pound project goes wrong because the officer leading it doesn't have the necessary skills, it is more expensive to fix than it would have been to spend a few thousand pounds paying to train them to handle it.