Council chiefs have today issued a white paper outlining how devolution should spread throughout England to embrace non-metropolitan areas, which generate 56% of national economic output.

Entitled: ‘English devolution: local solutions for a successful nation' a Local Government Association paper issued today calls for an ‘ambitious new local/central partnership' based on clear and mutually respected roles.

It sets out not only the benefits of devolution but also underpinning principles to sustain the process and calls for unity of purpose and suggests how devolution could me made to work well by boosting accountability and governance.