When the Queen’s Speech was delivered in October, the attention of the local government world focused on what it contained that might affect its future. The answer was ‘not a lot’. But it did give further momentum to the unitary bandwagon, which was kick-started by the Banham Commission appointed in 1992 and taken further by the shambolic bidding process initiated by Labour in 2006.

This process paused under former local government secretary Eric Pickles between 2011 and 2016, but again resumed momentum with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) approving proposals for unitary reorganisations in Dorset, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire and a move to create two ‘super districts’ in Suffolk.