We have just published a paper on governance and devolution, Cards on the table, a document which sets out to tackle in the most comprehensive way that has been attempted so far, some of the most significant and complex issues around devolution. Which begs the question – why, exactly, is it so difficult?

Governance is the issue to which all discussions about devolution end up returning. Pushing back on devolution proposals as part of the mysterious ‘challenge sessions’ periodically convened by the Department for Communities and Local Government to check on progress in negotiating proposals, ministers and senior civil servants often come back to their worries around governance and the sense local areas aren’t doing enough to address those worries.