It is our job as public service leaders to be ambitious for our places and optimistic about their future, even though local government is going through very tough times, writes Gavin Jones

The world is accelerating and we are struggling to keep up. The technologies that will dominate our lives 30 years from now have not been invented yet. When they do arrive we will labour to maintain pace with their endless upgrades and, just as we have mastered them, they will be rendered obsolete.

When I was younger, we were optimistic about the future. It seemed a realm of unbounded possibility – all flying cars, floating monorails, cryogenics and Swindon Town winning the league.