Steve was a fantastic and inspiring colleague and my thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time. When I first started working with Steve (around 2 years ago) I was a quite intimidated by his reputation, but the first time we met he was incredibly approachable, genuine and kind. He always wanted to "get to the bottom of a problem" and to understand the real issues - this is why he was so excellent at working with local authority stakeholders who sometimes found central government dismissive. Steve was the opposite. He wanted to listen and to understand and to find real solutions. A great guy and an incredible civil servant.