A highlight of the local government year for me is always the Local Government Association (LGA) Conference, held this year in Liverpool. It's always a busy few days, with responsibilities as both the Deputy Leader of the LGA Conservative Group as well as Chair of the Improvement and Innovation Board. I was asked to chair several panels, as well as speaking at several too, and that was alongside the daily group meetings (yes, it sounds serious but is actually quite good, with lots of opportunities to get to know colleagues).
Whilst you hope July is going to be a reasonably warm and sunny time, northern coasts are notoriously cool - however the weather was great for the week and enabled us to make the most of Liverpool. My big takeaways from the conference were the heightened engagement at the moment of both councils and also others, and the interest in areas such as AI and digital in delivering services for residents.
On a personal note, I was really pleased to be returned unopposed for my third year as deputy leader of the Conservative Group - it's an honour to be entrusted by so many colleagues to represent their views, alongside group leader Kevin Bentley. We were delighted to welcome Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch to our group dinner, who went down a storm!
