Shire England has been on what already seems a long race on the road to reorganisation and the ultimate goal of devolution.
But are the final proposals – which were submitted last month in the Devolution Priority Programme areas or which will be submitted in late November for other areas – worth the paper they are written on? A great deal of effort has gone into them, often with significant expenditure on external consultants. I don't mean to be disparaging to those who have done this work (including me!) but very few things that the final proposals contain are guaranteed to happen.
