There is no getting away from the fact there will be winners and losers from the fair funding review since, irrespective of any financial settlement, it is a redistribution not an increase, a re-slicing of the pie, not a bigger pie. London boroughs are already anxious that they will be the losers as indeed confirmed this week by the latest briefing from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), which suggested suburban and rural areas might be winners.

But into this already combustible mix the IFS has thrown another squib. In its detailed briefing on how the Government might assess spending needs the IFS asks on what data this assessment should be made.