Angela Rayner’s white paper on reform in this vital area is well-intentioned. The problems will be funding and sabotage

I am under no illusions about this. Compared with Prince Andrew’s latest disgrace or with Keely Hodgkinson’s latest glittering prize, the reform of English local government is no one’s clickbait subject, not even mine, least of all in the run-up to Christmas.

But it is a vitally important subject all the same. Local government that works is indispensable to the wider renewal of the state. It is also a rock without which the vital rebuilding of trust in politics is made altogether more difficult. Yet this cannot just be left to the political class, because their first instincts will be to create a system that works for them, but not necessarily for citizens.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist