The panic which developed in the corridors of Westminster during the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum has had an unexpected and potentially beneficial spin-off for local government in England.

There is now an all-party commitment to some form of devolution within England, as well as increased powers for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies. This is in principle a welcome boost for English local government, which would otherwise have been vulnerable to a further drift to centralisation, whatever the result of the 2015 General Election.

But the decision about the form which devolution should take in England is highly complex and not one to be taken lightly.

The Conservative Party’s preference to have the outcome of the whole devolution debate sorted before the election is simply neither feasible nor sensible.