Cheshire West and Chester Council was only created six years ago but from day one, according to chief executive Steve Robinson, its political and managerial leaders were determined it would be a model of innovation. As Steve tells The MJ: ‘We said we wanted to be the best council in the UK and in 2015 we got confirmation of this with The MJ award.'

The council's strategy began the day it was created in April 2009 out of part of the former Cheshire CC and three districts. Steve recalls: ‘We started by taking costs out. On day one we'd put in a new management structure and made 300 managers redundant. In summer 2009 austerity was on its way. We decided to rethink then what the council would be like in 2011 and shed 1,000 jobs in September 2009. We saved £60m in the first year and have reduced 23 council buildings down to nine. When we got to 2012, by which time were meeting all our targets, our next question was what to do next? We never moaned about lack of cash. We just got on with it. It wasn't just about saving costs – for example we didn't cut the voluntary sector. We didn't just do the easy stuff.'