By the time you have read this column the Queen’s Speech will have been presented. Will it still set Westminster’s legislative agenda during what should be a critical session for local government? Has it set out a new refreshed relationship between councils and Whitehall, building on the collaboration of the past year? Or does it take us backwards to see councils fighting for relevance from within a slow, one-size-fits-all straitjacket imposed from Westminster?

Top of the agenda must be a social care plan, with the legislation and money to deliver it. We have been promised something this year, but time is quickly running out.