A devolution ‘deal' has finally been agreed for the North East. Delayed by disagreements and negotiations between HM Treasury, Whitehall departments and the local authorities involved about exactly what would be released from the centre, where the Local Enterprise Partnership would sit and to whom it would be accountable and how a commission on health and social care would work.

Such haggling is characteristic of the deal-making integral to Government's ad hoc and piecemeal approach to decentralisation in England.