As always it was a fantastic opportunity to join colleagues at the recent MJ Future forum, this is a time where we can all update ourselves, discussion current developments and check our strategies.

Clearly this year much of the discussion centres upon two key themes, devolution and finance. For districts these two key issues are closely intertwined as having responsibility for more devolved powers and are closely aligned to the ability to either finance responsibilities or take the opportunity to maximise our ‘cash flow’ and generate further income, making us less grant reliant.