To say local government faces a renaissance is a step too far, but after June there is no question that aside from Brexit the political landscape will shift locally for several reasons.
The first is the demise of Labour at national level. While its parliamentary presence and leadership will be discredited after 8 June, the fightback will come from its local government base just as it did in the 1980s. It is there on the ground that able and experienced councillors continue to run multi-million pound organisations in a tight fiscal climate while their MPs run around like headless chickens. In addition, we now have high profile Labour metro mayors in Andy Burnham (Manchester), Steve Rotheram (Liverpool) and Sadiq Khan (London). In time, Labour's local presence will recover even while it stagnates nationally.
