The government’s publication of a ten year vision for local government in July 2004 suggests a return to a coherent local government policy after several years of policy drift. However, the detail of the vision is limited, offering a mixture of worthy objectives, issues of concern, and hints as to the kind of policies that may be developed later. Outside this, there are a number of external challenges that may well have a greater impact on the future of local government than the vision itself. They include: the efficiency savings proposed by the Treasury’s Gershon Report, the rise of ‘new localism’ across a range of government departments, the rise of the personal choice agenda and the collapse of the regional government agenda. The effect of these external challenges may be to further muddy the waters of local governance unless a more coherent agenda for reform can be developed.