Ministers in this government and the last like to say their national infrastructure plans are the most ambitious since the Victorian era, but if they looked closer at their history books, they'd see a Victorian success story just as worthy of a return – the era of local public servants empowered to improve their towns and cities without interference from national government.

Over the last century and a half we have seen a significant change from local areas being able to introduce bylaws and other regulatory powers with minimum government intervention, to one in which the all-powerful hand of Whitehall must give a blessing to the most minor of regulatory proposals.