What the appendix says when the press release does not

The press release about the rent report ran to four paragraphs. The report itself was attached to the cabinet agenda as appendix C, and the story was in a table on page 41 (sample).

I read appendices first now. The agenda tells you what the council wants to talk about; the attachments tell you what it already knows.

If you want to try it, start with the budget papers: find the line that changed most since last year and ask why.