A senior sector figure has expressed concerns about the Office for Local Government’s (Oflog) direction of travel.

Conservative Paul Bettison, a former member of the Oflog political leaders’ group and ex-chair of the Unitary Councils’ Network, said: ‘Right from the early stages we were conscious that if this was going to be accepted by everybody we didn’t want it to be the Audit Commission by another name.

'It’s amazing how much like it it’s started to look.’