The MJ Future Forum Video

The MJ held its second Future Forum event for Chief Executives of local authorities on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 March 2013, at Ettington Chase, Stratford-Upon-Avon. The event was sponsored by Pinnacle PSG and focused on budget planning and preparation for the next spending review.

The purpose of the event was to investigate both short and long-term fiscal challenges faced by local authorties in the next two years. From April they will be grappling with the impact of council tax benefit and business rate localisation.

These challenges are set against a backdrop of ongoing public sector austerity, which has now become the ‘new normal.’ In the second The MJ Future Forum, leading public sector experts examined the financial picture for local government while a series of workshops provided solutions to some of the issues raised during the plenaries. Neil Euesden, Pinnacle PSG’s Managing Director, lead a workshop entitled ‘Austerity should not mean poor housing’, which focussed on the challenges and opportunities that housing presents to councils.

To find out more about the event, please download and view the short film created by The MJ.