As anyone who read The MJ supplement last summer will know, the Local Government Association (LGA) celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017. In general, most people in the sector would regard the LGA as a success in bringing together the previous three associations and speaking for local government when it matters with one voice. Indeed, as its own peer review remarked, if the LGA didn't exist it would be necessary to invent it.

But still the grumbles persist that unlike the health sector, local government continues to be divided and ruled, with its component lobbying groups often competing with each other. The latest contribution to this debate comes from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) chief executive Rob Whiteman who in The MJ last week said that while the health sector somehow manages to present itself externally to government and the media as a single entity, local government lacks cohesion.