With less than four months to go before the starting gun is formally fired on the General Election, local economic growth is becoming a key battleground issue. Reducing the deficit and growing the economy are two issues that will form central planks to the party manifestos.

From chancellor George Osborne's attempts to stake Conservative fortunes on the Northern Powerhouse concept to Ed Miliband's pledge to devolve £30bn central government expenditure and the Liberal Democrats ‘devolution on demand' to cede extra powers to local level, growth has moved to the political foreground.