It wasn't always like this. There was a time when finance settlements used to come in November, giving councils enough time to work on budgets before the 11th hour. Sometimes there were even multi-year settlements – offering certainty, even if they could not endow any actual cash.

It may be easy to understand why this year's settlement is so late, after a rather chaotic autumn at the Treasury. And hats off to ministers who attempted to give council colleagues the heads-up in a financial policy statement – albeit one that should have dropped last week.