Solar eclipse and the budget speech

“As an amateur astronomer I’m very excited about this morning's partial eclipse although looking out of the window right now all I can see are white clouds so it may be a bit of a disappointment. Still, at 85% coverage we should all notice it going a bit dark at about 0925. Have fun watching 

I had my hernia operation last week so have been off work for 8 days recuperating. Back now though and just a little sore and stiff. No cycling for 4 weeks and I can’t lift anything heavier than a kettle which has got me nicely out of any housework or DIY at home. Thanks for the good wishes that you sent me, I appreciate it.

Being at home enabled me to watch the entire budget speech and analysis as it happened. It was interesting from several perspectives. The economy seems to be growing well, although some are describing the growth as fragile and it’s good to see that wages are now rising in real terms again. The key message I took from Wednesdays announcement for us in local government was we can expect to see the same size cuts to our government grants between 2015-19 as we did over the last four years. This was not surprising and it’s interesting to see the commentators press politicians from all sides for the detail of exactly what they plan to cut. Nobody seems to wish to give that detail though.

We will have to continue to plan on reductions of around 10% per year for the next four years. It will mean that we have to continue to innovate, identify new ways of working with communities and partners to deliver services within an affordable level and take the appropriate risks to make this happen. We have a strong track record of this and coupled to staff and members with great ideas I am confident that we will meet this challenge well.

I met with the Economic Development & Planning team yesterday – about 80 staff for one of their regular “Knowledge Series” workshops. They get together periodically to share key policy and implementation plans and discuss how they can continue to develop their services and innovate together. These are always excellent learning opportunities and it was good to see so many people attending. I was particularly impressed by some of their staff survey and culture development data that they have been working on as part of their service transformation programme. The improvements achieved are very impressive.

Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.

Carlton”