‘Let local government get on with what it does best,’ reads one of the comments in our latest survey of council heads. They are words that could be the collective cry of local government today.

For a while, it seemed that the Government was seeking to build on their election success based on capturing the spirits of the grassroots by reaching out to left behind places. But enter the pandemic, and they have gone back to centralising instincts, to the detriment of any real understanding of local needs, and with it the missed opportunity of capitalising on local assets.