It is time for the Government to realise the case for elected mayors is not as clear-cut as ministers had believed, say George Jones and John Stewart.

The mayoral referendums were an example of anti-localism. Through the Localism Act, 12 local authorities were required to hold mayoral referendums by central government, not by local people, although they already had the power to do so since the Local Government Act 2000, if 5% of their electorate had signed a petition to that effect.