Council chiefs will be informed today that spending review budget cuts are substantially larger than any of the sums negotiated in the first wave of City Deals, The MJ understands.

Coming ahead of next week's anticipated announcement as to which of the 20 second wave City Deal bids have been successful, the verdict from the Centre for Cities' think tank on the first round of agreements concludes that the Coalition's decentralisation approach remains fragile and vulnerable to shifting priorities.