A s events of recent years have made abundantly clear, an approach to resilience cannot be underpinned by anything but a ‘whole-society' focus – it is only through this that we can build truly resilient communities.

The challenges our communities face not only show no sign of abating but, as last summer's riots demonstrate, seem only to be escalating. While the pandemic is the most extreme and high-profile example, it showed that every level of government, every business, every community group and every individual has a role to play in creating resilient places and that no one organisation can do it on their own.