As we close The MJ for 2018, it's fair to say this has been a year of extraordinary events and extreme inertia, set side-by-side. As finances were squeezed the resilience of local government has been tested to its limits – and it has started to crumble in places.

Northamptonshire's Section 114 was a wake-up call as financial and managerial failures hit new levels. The secretary of state's recent ruling that the council can bail out its finances with capital receipts is an extraordinary bit of creative accounting but a warning shot that there will be no Government bailouts.