There are times when the phrases ‘snail’s pace’ and ‘re-inventing the wheel’ simply become a shorthand to describe government. Number 10 has now decided to return to a system of Downing Street units – previously favoured by Tony Blair – to push forward the Conservative manifesto but which were largely abandoned in 2010 on the grounds they were too centrist.

There will be units for housing, for integration of social care and health and troubled families. The latter two form what was once called Total Place, a concept developed more than seven years ago and which looked promising until it was sidelined by the coalition. Maybe, had it not been sidelined, we would not in 2015 need a new unit to progress it.

I was reminded of this when being shown an impressive pioneering database last week by a northern local authority, which maps troubled families by merging their data from police, welfare and schools.