Women, and particularly working age women, are missing in their thousands from England’s council chambers. The reasons to worry about this should be obvious – aside from the basic democratic principle, there is the fact that local government is disproportionately staffed by women, delivers services disproportionately used by women, and has been hit disproportionately cuts from central government (where, oddly, women are also a minority voice).

But while representation in Parliament has increased by three quarters over the last twenty years, in local government it progress has almost flat-lined, and that’s because there are serious structural problems holding us back.