George Jones and John Stewart look back at the golden age of ‘civic gospel'– making towns cleaner, sweeter and brighter and ask whether the Localism Act 2011 has changed things for better – or worse.

Was there a golden age in local government when all was well for local authorities that sought to meet local needs, untrammelled by undue controls and intervention by central government, and able to innovate in both policy and practice? The nearest that local government came to that golden age was in the towns of the latter part of the 19th Century, but with a restricted franchise.