The Buckinghamshire Business First hosted event saw nearly two dozen members attend from a variety of service areas and sectors, along with Buckinghamshire County Council, several district councillors and the former Chief Executive of the County Council.

The session was designed to encourage open discussion of both the challenges and the opportunities of local government in Buckinghamshire changing into an entirely new council model, and to help the County Council better understand what businesses would need from their local authority in the future.

The workshop triggered healthy, passionate discussion and debate from everyone in the room; business owners were clear that re-shaping councils would improve local public services, offer new commercial opportunities to local and national organisations, and give more choice to communities on how they want services delivered in their area. People also understood the positive impact on communities through potential reduction in council operating costs through the joining-up of services across the board and streamlining service delivery – resulting in massive added value for residents and businesses. Overall the workshop was very positively received by all.

Neil Gibson, Interim Chief Executive of Buckinghamshire County Council said: “Thank you to everyone who took the time to attend the workshop and gave their views. Your thoughts and feedback on how a future new council could operate, to best suit your needs, is valuable learning for us as we develop a vision of what the future could look like, and all your feedback is being incorporated into our business case.”

County Council wants to know your experiences of interacting with them

Buckinghamshire County Council would like to invite a small group of interested businesses to engage with them in more depth about their experiences of interacting with councils, so please email research@bbf.uk.com with the subject line ‘Modernising Local Government’ if you are interested.