Shadow communities secretary Hilary Benn can be a surprise when you meet him for the first time.

Giving speeches at conferences, at receptions in the House of Commons and at think-tank get-togethers he appears competent, passionate and believable.

But, up close, you're forced to reappraise him and view his qualities in a new light.

Mr Benn warmly welcomed The MJ into his House of Commons office for an exclusive interview.

He's in the middle of his lunch – an exotic looking mish-mash in a takeaway container – and politely asks if it's OK for him to finish.

But while chomping away, he immediately reveals himself to be a lot more charismatic than his first impression.

He comes across as far more human than just a professional politician and peppers his conversation with anecdotes.

But The MJ did not come to chat to Mr Benn about learning Russian at university or his recent trip to the YMCA annual conference, but rather the topic that almost everyone in the sector is talking about – devolution.

Since the results of the Scottish referendum and chancellor George Osborne's Devo Manc announcement, devolution has even registered in the newsrooms of the national press.

It is rare that a positive development in local government gets national coverage, but this topic has even led to widespread praise of the councils that make up Greater Manchester's combined authority.

Mr Osborne has also been widely hailed as a champion of devolution, but Mr Benn is far from convinced about the chancellor's seemingly Damascene conversion.

‘Manchester has had a huge amount of money taken away from it and the chancellor says "here's a bit of it back" and everyone's meant to be grateful,' says Mr Benn.

‘There is no doubt that the counties feel completely left out of this process.

‘Local growth deals have turned into something else. There are so many contradictions in the current government's approach.'

Labour's alternative devolution offer is to counties as well as cities, with 100% of business rate income being given to councils and local authorities to use their neighbours' unused borrowing capacity.

It's a return of the spirit of 19th century municipal government and local public accounts committees, so that every area has its own Margaret Hodge, although the party cannot seem to make its mind up on elected mayors and the ‘most exciting and important development' is combined authorities.

‘There are tensions within all political parties, but we have been working on devolution in our policy-making process over the last two years,' says Mr Benn.

‘There is a real thirst for more decisions to be taken locally. It is about giving power back to people. Outstanding leadership from chief executives is absolutely fundamental to making this happen,' he states.

‘It leads to diversity. It also leads to different decisions in different places, but I think that is a good thing.

‘In the end we need to decide where the public do not want a postcode lottery – things like high educational standards and the availability of medicines. For the national stuff, of course, you need a government.

‘I think the [Labour] party's been on a journey. Performance indicators [under the last government] were drawn up for the very best of motives but it creates a mindset where councils are waiting to be told what to do.'

So, it appears, Labour has had a Damascene conversion, too, which begs the questions of what has changed and whether the party can be trusted to deliver this time around.

To answer that question, Mr Benn falls into the politician's habit of responding by enumerating a succession of points that are difficult to interrupt.

However, he acknowleges the realisation that not everything can be run from the centre, that there is a lack of money and a loss of faith in politics.

‘I think the global economic crash has had an impact,' Mr Benn concedes.

‘People feel and realise that we cannot always wait for someone else to solve the problems we've already got. We have a crisis of confidence in our politics. As a public servant, that worries me a lot.

‘The lack of finance really does mean that you've got to have more co-operation.'

It now seems more likely that greater co-operation will take the form of combined authorities, which is something that Labour paved the way for through the legislation it passed in 2009.

But, some councils are far from enthusiastic about the new structures and may lose out on any devolutionary windfall as a result.

At a recent New Local Government Network event, Mr Benn insisted that Whitehall could not force combined authorities to form and that it would not be a top-down process.

However, he says, he is excited by the ‘bottom-up' nature of the way in which combined authorities are coming together and he hopes that sceptics will change their minds when they see their peers benefiting. ‘It will have a domino effect because I cannot understand why they wouldn't want to.

‘It is for authorities to make their choice,' he comments.

‘I think it's in the spirit of devolution to say, "you know what, it's your choice".'

But Mr Benn is less certain about how fiscal devolution can be combined with redistribution. ‘The two have to go hand-in-hand,' he states.

‘I think it's work in progress. Fiscal devolution is going to take time.'

Whether Mr Benn gets this time will be in the hands of the electorate next year.