2018 will be a year we recognise anniversaries for a number of landmark pieces of legislation. It will be ten years on from the Climate Change Act, while the National Minimum Wage and Human Rights Acts will both turn 20. Reaching further back, the National Assistance Act, which abolished the poor laws and created the modern welfare state, will celebrate its 70^th birthday.

Less widely celebrated, it's fair to say, will be the fifteenth anniversary of the General Disposal Consent. But in its own quiet way, this is proving to be a revolutionary legislative change that is transforming the relationship between local authorities and local communities.