Local government finances are broken. Government ambitions to support services through local tax revenues will not be enough to cover the soaring costs of social care. We need a national debate on the state of the state – on whether to raise taxes or cut services. This is the conclusion of the IFS in its report launched yesterday.

Yet nothing has happened. National debates and public opinion have been hijacked elsewhere in the current maelstrom of British politics. And local government's success in papering over the cracks of its finances have pushed the problems down the agenda. Local government is, in part, a victim of its own success.