Sections of local government have 'abdicated their responsibility' by dumping their devolution disputes at the Treasury's door, it was claimed this week. Despite weeks of frantic talks ahead of last week's deadline, many areas were unable to reach agreement, with some even signing up to multiple rival bids. Whitehall officials, who had expected the deadline would lead to a more coherent picture, will now be forced to spend some of the next few weeks unpicking the confused picture and thrashing out differences - time that could otherwise have been spent concentrating on the substance of the bids. One senior local government source said: 'The sector should be kicking itself because some of it has missed an opportunity to demonstrate that we're capable of sorting things out ourselves.
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