The rhetoric of the announcements this week about the future of local government was uplifting. Eric Pickles, the Conservative communities and local government secretary, said on December 13th that reforms in a new bill marked "a groundbreaking shift in power to councils and communities". But the reality of the funding settlement he announced the same day, specifying how much less councils will get in central money over the next two years, was a bleak reminder of the grip Whitehall retains over local authorities, by providing just over half their finance.
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