Only two years ago we were experiencing a ‘race to the top' on city devolution. During the 2015 election campaign, the Conservatives introduced their plan for devolving powers to combined authorities which agreed to elect mayors while Labour committed to devolving £30bn worth of funding to city regions.

Jump to 2017 and, while progress has been made in six regions, it would be remiss to ignore the difference in tone on devolution since Theresa May entered Downing Street and Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader.