Usually we act in the self-interest of our employing authority(ies) – after all, they pay our wages. But often we need to recognise that we are part of a wider system of local government, and this means acting in the interests of the sector, even if to our own detriment. Here are three examples.

New Homes Bonus (NHB): Swale receives a significant level of NHB, providing some mitigation for our loss of core grant. And if NHB was not top-sliced from Revenue Support Grant, then great. But the current mechanism is diverting significant funding away from low growth areas, many of which are highly deprived.

As recent reviews have suggested, we need to fundamentally redesign local government finance, and this must include reviewing the impact of NHB; although equally I do not believe that it can be terminated overnight given that the six-year funding stream has been relied on in many places to fund contracts to drive housing and other developments.