With inflation now at 8.7%, it might be tempting to think things will look rosier from here on, but those headline figures mask the fact that prices are not yet coming down.

In reality, they are rising more slowly while costs for certain goods and materials remain very high by recent standards.

For the County Councils’ Network’s (CCN) member councils, it means communication with their residents becomes trickier.

People going about their everyday lives should now see monthly decreases in inflation, but for local government difficult decisions still remain. This is because local government is still dealing with the shock of double-digit inflation for the last year, the legacy of coronavirus and the impacts of austerity.