From Fiscal Pressure to Transformational Action: Reflections from Public Finance Live 2026

Written by Tom Berry & Jennifer Collins

Public Finance Live is always a welcome opportunity to step away from the day job, catch up with finance colleagues from across the country and take stock of what’s happening in local government. 

This year certainly didn’t disappoint. 

With our eye-catching stand stocked full of merch and cold drinks, and a roaming band welcoming delegates to Olympia with Get Lucky at 9am, there was plenty to get people talking before the first session had even begun. 

Across the two days, we spoke with Section 151 Officers, finance leaders, transformation teams and service colleagues from councils across the country. While every organisation is facing its own unique challenges, there was a noticeable shift in the conversations. Yes, the financial pressures remain immense, but there was also a genuine appetite to move beyond talking about the problems and towards finding practical ways to respond. 

Highlight of day one was our conference session, where Fran Tinsley (Manager at IMPOWER) and Kellie Williams (Assistant Director for Corporate Improvement and Innovation at Bracknell Forest Council) explored how councils can respond to increasingly complex financial and service challenges. 

Expertly chaired by CIPFA’s Associate Director Andy Burns, Kellie reflected on Bracknell Forest’s financial position following the Fair Funding Settlement and shared how IMPOWER’s Complex Transformation Academy helped her rethink the challenge. Rather than viewing the issue purely through a financial lens, she described how the Academy encouraged a broader perspective – understanding the system, the people within it and the conditions needed to deliver sustainable change. 

Kellie also delivered what was undoubtedly our quote of the conference, describing the Complex Transformation Academy as “the single best piece of learning and development I’ve had in my whole career.” Safe to say the marketing team have already claimed that one. 

Fran complemented this perfectly by exploring the role of data in transformation. She challenged delegates to look beyond the numbers and understand the lived experiences behind them. Data can tell us where pressures exist, but meaningful transformation comes from understanding why they exist – listening to residents, families and frontline staff and designing services around those insights. 

It was fantastic to see the session so well attended, with many delegates making a beeline for our stand afterwards to continue the conversation. There was also plenty of interest in the IMPOWER INDEX, which attracted visitors from right across the public sector, keen to understand how it can support organisations in identifying opportunities for improvement and prioritising transformation activity. From those conversations, three key themes emerged: 

• The financial challenge isn’t going away – and neither is demand. 

• Data remains one of local government’s biggest opportunities, but turning insight into action is still the challenge. 

• Transformation capability is becoming just as important as transformation ambition. 

We left day one socially exhausted (conference networking really is an endurance sport) but encouraged by the quality of conversations we’d had and optimistic that day two would be just as productive.  

The only lingering uncertainty? Whether football might finally be coming home that evening… 

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. 

Day two therefore began with a collective period of reconciliation – not with the accounts, but with England once again falling just short. Thankfully, the disappointment didn’t last long as another steady stream of visitors arrived, keen to discuss financial sustainability, transformation and how IMPOWER could support their ambitions. 

There was a noticeable buzz around the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) announcements scheduled for 11:30am yesterday. LGR dominated many of the conversations throughout the day, with finance leaders understandably focused on what the changes could mean for governance, financial resilience and future operating models. 

Alongside these discussions, the conference programme reinforced many of the same messages we’d heard throughout the event: councils need to strengthen financial resilience, make better use of data, invest in leadership capability and build the confidence to deliver complex transformation at pace. 

As the conference drew to a close, one thing felt clear. 

Despite significant challenges, across both days local government leaders showed a strong commitment to sharing ideas, learning from one another and finding new ways to tackle complex challenges. 

We’re already looking forward to continuing those conversations over the coming months and beyond.