As we head into the election is there a prospect of the most centralised western democracy embracing greater devolution or is this is another false dawn?

The last parliament began with the coalition preaching the mantra of localism.  However, the results of the last five years have been mixed.  There has been some progress but parliament ended with a string of centralised directions to local authorities on how they should act on issues as diverse as publishing newspapers and setting up housing companies.

There has been some progress with city deals and combined authorities.  These have provided increased powers to groups of local authorities to bring prosperity and growth to their areas.   George Osborne’s “Northern Powerhouse” speech and the devoManc announcement stole a march on Labour’s devolution agenda.  These also answered some of the clamour for devolution in England following the Scottish referendum.