It’s time to face facts: the devolution revolution has stalled.

Despite considerable effort expended up and down the country by politicians and officers both local and national, the reality that there will be just six mayoral elections in 2017 stands in stark contrast to the Government’s enthusiastic rhetoric back in 2015. If this is what has become of the promise of a ‘radical devolution of power’ then the vast majority of the country has been sold a pup.

But much has changed in the meantime. In the wake of the Brexit vote, the prime minister promised to deliver an ‘economy that works for everyone’. However, it will not succeed via the current centralised and siloed model of government – instead we need to radically rethink how decisions are made about local economies from the bottom-up.