The collapse of the Sheffield City Region’s devolution deal is bad news for people and places across the city region, who will now miss out on benefits such as having a metro mayor with significant powers to boost growth in the local economy, and £900m funding over 30 years.

It also reflects a wider drift in focus of the city devolution agenda, away from its original rationale of empowering the major city regions of the North to drive growth and prosperity in their economies – a drift which the Government must address to make the best possible success of devolution.