The notes accompanying the recent Queen's Speech state that one of the main benefits of the ensuing Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill will be ‘boosting growth and increasing productivity and efficiency in local government'.

Immediately post-election and prior to the 2010 Spending Review I was invited to lead a workshop for the benefit of the Department for Communities and Local Government and HM Treasury entitled A total framework to realise localism, enhanced outcomes and necessary efficiencies. We discussed in detail ‘a whole-systems approach to addressing the existing architecture – making things work better for local people, under the overarching economic development objective'.