Colin Cram has held senior positions in the public sector for the past 30 years, including central (including the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury) and local government, higher education and the wider public sector. He has been responsible throughout for initiating and implementing innovative strategies for procurement, shared services, outsourcings and organisational re-engineering. Savings from his initiatives exceed £1bn.

Colin has created and managed several pioneering joint and shared service procurement organisations, influencing spend of up to £7bn a year. He was a founder member of the Central Unit on Purchasing (the forerunner of the Office of Government Commerce), created and led the Research Councils' Procurement Organisation, the Benefits Agency Contracts Organisation and was First Director of the North Western Universities' Purchasing Consortium. Latterly he was Director of the North West Centre of Excellence, creating and delivering collaborative opportunities in procurement and shared services for 47 local authorities.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, Colin has been appointed a senior adviser to the Office of Government Commerce and is a member of SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives). He is a regular speaker at national and international conferences and training events, and is a regular contributor to professional journals. He has been a member of European working groups on Procurement, Innovation and Sustainability. He runs a successful consultancy, Marc1 Ltd.


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Alison Scott joined CIPFA in November 2006 as a technical manager after nearly 16 years working as a practitioner in local government. She held a number of positions in local government finance ranging from graduate trainee to Chief Finance Officer. During her time in local government she worked on a wide variety of projects, including local government reorganisation, a transfer of elderly peoples' homes and PFI schemes in magistrates courts and education.

Alison's biggest challenge, however, was joining Northampton Borough Council, eventually taking on the Chief Finance Officer role. During her time at Northampton she developed improved financial management and reporting processes, including the introduction of devolved budgeting and obtaining an unqualified audit opinion on the accounts, and gained considerable understanding of the demands placed on finance professionals in an organisation judged as poor under CPA.

Within CIPFA, Alison was previously a technical manager with responsibility for the development of the prudential code, capital finance and treasury management. She now holds the role of Assistant Director Local Government, with responsibility for the development of local government financial management within CIPFA.

Presentation: Generating funds, maximising income and making partnerships work

Over a third of local authority income is generated locally through council tax, fees and charges, commercial rents, investments and asset sales. This fraction is only set to increase following the local government resource review. Highlighting why partnerships are becoming increasingly important and what councils could be doing better to raise funds.

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Paula joined the NLGN as Head of Research in August 2011. She has extensive experience in delivering projects on local economic growth gained through work in consultancy and think tanks.

Prior to joining NLGN, Paula worked as a senior consultant with Experian's economic policy team, managing research for central government and local councils. Paula also worked for the Institute of Public Policy Research and the Centre for Cities where she led regional and local economic policy analysis. She has published and spoken widely on the impact of the recession on local economies, and on the importance of understanding economic geography to formulate effective economic policy. She has also conducted research on labour markets, migration and climate change.

She holds an M.Phil in International Development (economic and social development) from the University of Oxford, and a MSc. in Economics from Pompeu Fabra University, Spain.

Presentation: The Localism Bill: seizing opportunities

A general power of competence has given local councils new freedoms to run services autonomously and meet local citizen's needs much more effectively. Maximising additional income can help offset the costs of services and generate income for investment. Local authorities have a flexible legal framework for charging and trading powers. Is it feasible to set up a trading company model that can carry out service work for profit? Public sector bodies should also aim to make the most of central government settlements, subsidies and dedicated grant payments that are available. It is increasingly important to establish an integrated approach to work with other public bodies, funding agencies and the private sector on cross-funding initiatives.

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Peter Fleming has been a district councillor since 1999 and has led Sevenoaks District Council for the last six years. As an authority, Sevenoaks District Council has been nationally recognised as leading the way in providing value for money and the good use of resources. Peter serves on the executive of the District Councils Network and, following a number of years as a member, he has recently been appointed Chairman of the Local Government Associations Improvement Board. One of the areas that comes under the board's work is that of council-owned assets. Peter is also the LGA's National Lead Member on Welfare Reform.

Presentation: Smarter use of assets, local government and beyond

Local authorities own a range of assets, many of which generate income to help meet the cost of providing services to local people. To ensure better value for money, public bodies must work harder to minimise the cost of maintaining assets, from sports facilities to parks, while maximising income from the office buildings and property they own.

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Paul O'Brien is the Chief Executive of the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE). Based in Manchester, APSE has 250 local authorities in membership.

Paul has represented APSE on the Scottish Executive Health and Physical Activity Council, the Office of the Deputy Prime Ministers, Strategic Partnership Taskforce, Trading and Charging working party and the Local Government Procurement Forum. He is currently the independent facilitator of the Northern Ireland Local Government Reform Joint Forum.

Paul is a columnist with the MJ magazine and regular contributor to numerous local government publications. He was also a board member on the partnership between APSE, IDeA and LGIU which delivered the ODPM's National Councillor Mentoring Programme.

Paul was previously APSE's Principal Advisor (Scotland) and has over 27 years' experience in local government.

Presentation: Renewable energy as a source of income

The Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) has been exploring how local authorities can exploit feed-in tariffs to generate real new income. Income derived from renewable energy can not only help generate much-needed revenue, but can also fund other local energy projects and develop a more sustainable, cost-effective and greener energy supply.

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David Lee is Leader of Wokingham Borough Council. Wokingham is a unitary authority which deals with all aspects of local government, including social services, education, planning, highways, libraries, and sport and public health.

Wokingham receives the lowest central government funding of any English authority at £142 per resident, which represents some 20% of their spend; the average authority receives some 50%. This low level of funding has been the main driving force in Wokingham to constantly review how they provide their services.

Rising to this challenge, Wokingham has over the years developed cutting-edge delivery models to maintain and indeed enhance services and prides itself that while others have been cutting libraries and closing children's centres, they have been opening them; it is this approach that David will be talking about.

David has lived in Wokingham for 20 years. He has a grown-up family, all working in the area. Following an initial career in the Merchant Navy as a Navigating Officer, he went to Queens University where he studied Economics. After leaving university, David qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1980. After qualifying as an accountant, he worked in the oil industry with Chevron Oil. Following this, he worked in London and Reading in corporate finance advising companies on mergers and acquisitions and stock exchange work. Currently, David runs an engineering company in Fleet.

Presentation: Making the transition: How public services can spin out enterprises

A practical guide to spin out limited companies, such as Wokingham Enterprises Limited, that Wokingham Borough Council have set up to support the local economy and help create additional income.

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Peter Cosmetatos is Director of Policy (Finance) at the British Property Federation, where he is responsible for formulating and articulating industry views on a broad range of finance, tax and regulatory matters. He was a member of the core group convened by officials at Communities and Local Government and the Treasury after Budget 2009 to explore the options for UK Tax Increment Finance. He continues to work with government officials, BPF members and other stakeholders to promote the development of a sound TIF structure in the UK in the localism context. Before joining the BPF in 2008, Peter worked as a tax lawyer, focusing particularly on property finance.

Presentation: Public sector property assets and private sector investment – generating value and income

Discussing the Local Government Resource Review and the new powers and opportunities that schemes such as Local Enterprise Partnerships, Enterprise Zones and Tax Increment Financing entail. Exploring how the public sector can support local economic development by partnering business and developers to deliver efficiencies and Local Asset Backed Vehicles.

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