Blame for August's riots can be ascribed to the buck-passing tradition of top-down public services, delivered in silos without compassion or empathy, LGA chairman Sir Merrick Cockell will claim today.

Marking Smith Square's first measured response to the summer's outbreak of public disorder across England's major cities, Sir Merrick will ask: ‘What kind of caring public agency is only prepared to go as far as the limit of its statutory remit on problem A and is then passed on to another agency to deal with problem B?'