Local government needs its own Office for Budget Responsibility to fill the gap left by the Audit Commission, officially abolished this week, says Sir Michael Lyons, one of its former chairmen, in an interview with Michael Burton

The demise of the Audit Commission this week still leaves a gap which will eventually have to be filled, according to one of its more prominent past leaders, Sir Michael Lyons.

The former council chief executive and later chairman of the BBC Trust, arrived at the commission in November 2003 as deputy chairman and was later briefly acting chairman.