Local government yearns for devolution. It rightly stresses the importance of being able to respond far more quickly and appropriately to local needs than a centralised system can ever do. Yet ironically, there are some in local government who think its future is best served by remaining in the EU.

As devolution is growing a-pace, local government is cutting and having cut for it the financial shackles that bind it to central government. Shackling yourself to a new paymaster the EU – is inconsistent and contradictory, sending the message ‘we don’t want this pay-master but we’d like a bigger more powerful one’.