David Cameron may have blinked too early when he conceded devo-max powers to Scotland during the referendum campaign, or it may have been a canny move that swung undecided voters to vote no.

Either way he has the election result he wanted. But he also has the unpalatable task of having to push devo-max through a UK Parliament whose English MPs are furious about the commitment to maintaining the Barnett Formula and want the West Lothian question sorted. 

Furthermore English cities, especially the city regions, now see their opportunity at last to push for genuine devolution of fiscal powers from a chastened Westminster.

First a glance at the timetable. At the end of October a ‘command’ paper will set out the government’s proposals for devo-max followed by a White Paper at the end of the month.

Interestingly the Autumn Statement is due in the first week of December, much of which could be overtaken by events. A draft Scotland Act will appear on January 25 but the Commons will not vote on it until after the May 2015 general election.

So it will be the new government and the new Parliament, not this one, which will vote in the new Act. The devo-max issue will be a minefield for Ed Miliband in the general election.

The party has too many Labour MPs in Scotland not to offend and yet Welsh and English Labour MPs and their local authorities will also be demanding a fairer funding formula and an end to Barnett.

While the Tories have little to lose in Scotland they can be sure UKIP will make hay over what they see as over-generous concessions to Scotland.

The public finances are already set to be the battleground in the general election. Now this is complicated by the level of tax and spending powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

It seems reasonable that the Scots should determine their own welfare policy – the Scottish government already funds the ‘spare room subsidy’ because it is opposed to it being withdrawn and indeed welfare has been a bone of contention between Holyrood and Westminster.

But a Scottish welfare policy means an end to the national unified Universal Credit and also a change to the welfare spending cap which at the moment can only be raised by a Commons vote.

There can be no argument for conceding tax and spend powers on the one hand but maintaining the subsidy paid by English taxpayers through the Barnett formula.

English local government has already long argued it is losing out in the block grant as a result. Nor will English taxpayers support higher spending on the NHS in Scotland to which they have to contribute.

Extra tax-raising powers to the Scottish Parliament should be used for any extra spending on public services. That is the whole point of fiscal devolution.  But of course if the Scottish Government can enjoy tax-raising powers why not the big English cities?

Finally little has been talked about the role of Scottish local government in devo-max.

Just because more powers will be given to the Scottish Parliament does not mean more powers to Scottish councils which are already fretting at what they regard as a centralised Scottish government.

It is curious that even though its citizens backed independence, Glasgow’s council earlier this year signed up a City Deal with the Westminster government.

The Scottish islands have long had their own streak of independence – against the Scottish government.

Devo max may yet arouse calls from Scottish local government for their own devo max.