Former Civil Service head Lord Kerslake has called on local authorities to step up their scrutiny processes to compensate for the decline of local media.

Speaking to The MJ after a London Assembly report warned that democracy was suffering from a decline of local papers, Lord Kerslake, chair of the Centre for Public Scrutiny, said: ‘The decline of external scrutiny via the local media means we have to emphasise the importance of building a robust system of scrutiny within councils.