Local government is often described by ministers as the most efficient part of the public sector.  Following two major reports last week which were both critical of Whitehall, this judgement can only have been further enhanced.

The first study, by the National Audit Office, was into the hugely ambitious Universal Credit programme.  The IT system required to support it was always likely to prove challenging to implement and the lessons of the fiasco of the NHS IT programme have clearly not been entirely absorbed.