As the winners and losers of the latest round of local government reorganisation were announced last week, England took one step closer to sharing the single tier landscape of its neighbours in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – assuming you ignore combined authorities, and a vast array of town and parish councils, of course.

A quick glance down the list of members of the County Councils' Network and it becomes clear that it is increasingly becoming a misnomer. More than a third of the counties are now unitary as the Government gradually picks them off one by one.