Mock devolution

Councils and Mayors are suggesting what they would like to for their communities. They are soon discovering Mr Burnham has no intention of giving them powers to do popular things in their own areas.

Some want the right to say No to housing and accommodation being made available preferentially to illegal arrivals in the UK. They think the Home Office is putting far too many young males into adapted barracks or social housing relative to the size of the local community and the facilities available. Government intends to override local wishes.

Some areas want to slow the rate of new development because of the strains it is placing on local roads, public services and utilities. Government intends to drive through more housing regardless of local wishes and the realities of service provision.

Some Mayors rightly see that if they are given more grant from Whitehall the priority is to get local tax bills down to ease the squeeze from Council tax increases on family budgets. Ms Haigh dismissively says Mayors cannot become mini Chancellors and are not to give tax cuts.

So on the big three issues, the cost of living and tax squeeze, the pace of inward migration, and plans for each local community the government says a big No to devolution. Indeed it plans to  centralise more, driving up taxes to spend more, putting more illegal arrivals in unsuitable locations and overriding plans for community development. It is one big con.