Give the opening address at the Local Government Staff Commission in Northern Ireland’s conference in County Down today. The session is about the challenges facing local government in the UK and there isn’t a shortage of things to talk about, which could have been the reason I slightly overran!
Whilst setting a context around the difficult financial climate I try to get a challenging message across about being masters of our own destiny. I push the idea of the triangle of excellence, of getting the balance correct between efficiency savings, income generation and innovation. There are lots of brilliant things happening out there in local government it just needs to be gathered up and applied in the appropriate circumstances.
Then I am off to Glasgow for the Chartered Institute of Waste Management Dinner in the evening.