Phillip Inman argues that Andy Burnham's push for English devolution, alongside Angela Rayner's parallel overhaul of local government, is heading into a messy and slow process fraught with risk. He warns that Whitehall's reluctance to cede money and power will produce piecemeal deals, such as one for Cornwall lacking a promised mayor, while Rayner's reorganisation into unitary authorities is bogged down by judicial reviews and disputes over how councils' debts should be divided.

Several councils, including Hertfordshire, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Lincolnshire, have written to Rayner questioning how decisions on their areas were reached, and Essex is being split into five unitary authorities against officials' recommendation of three, fuelling accusations of political gerrymandering. Although ministers hope disputes will be settled by Christmas ahead of new elections next May, Inman contends the reforms, estimated to cost £2bn upfront, rest on an unproven belief that restructuring alone improves services or boosts growth, echoing the Institute for Government's warning that structural change is not inherently valuable without deeper reform of how public bodies work together.