During the vaccine rollout, Charles Moore wrote about the silliness of screaming ‘postcode lottery!' whenever one area feels less well treated than another in public services. He said ‘the point of local health trusts, councils and so on is to let local people run most of the things that matter to them with the logical result that there will be differences'.

Councils should be using this argument to highlight how local differences can be marshalled to develop innovative solutions to drive local economic growth and to improve the services they provide. A more equal, prosperous and productive future is more likely if localities can respond to their specific context and communities' needs and tailor solutions with their partners.