With the theme of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ at its heart, the 2015 Budget reflected the political currency that cities and devolution continue to hold, particularly with this chancellor, who has led the way through his substantial agreement with Greater Manchester, to show just how much can be achieved for cities if there is political will on both sides.

But the Budget also made clear that there remains much to be done before the promised visions and rhetoric of change match the nuts and bolts of government policy-making.

At the Centre for Cities, we had been looking for three key commitments: cementing the devolution agreement with Greater Manchester in stone, pledging to take strong action on tackling the housing crisis in our least affordable cities and delivering fiscal devolution to London.

We chose to focus on these as means through which the Government could make important further headway on devolution – by supporting those cities with the greatest capacity to drive economic growth in the short-term.