Everyone knew there would be very little money to spare in Wednesday’s spending round and Thursday’s “growth statement”. The economy’s poor performance has put paid to any attempts to move away from “austerity” government, so departmental cuts of up to 10 per cent came as no surprise. Yet the big question for me was whether the Review – which, it’s worth remembering, doesn’t even get put into practice until 2015 – would start to signal an alternation in the balance of power, away from most decisions being taken centrally about how money is spent and towards more local decision- about how best to deliver jobs, growth and better public services for much less money. So did it happen?
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