What’s the difference between a Thunderbirds puppet and the uplift in the local government finance settlement? None, both have strings attached.

As a child of the 1960s I loved International Rescue’s thrilling ability to pull the world back from the brink of disaster every time. With so many councils at a financial cliff edge, it is heartening to hear that central Government has responded to strong lobbying from the sector and after years of austerity and cuts, is ‘bailing us out’ with an additional £600m of funding.