At the Nesta Government Innovation Summit last September, Geoff Mulgan, chief executive at Nesta, made a surprising declaration. In the midst of an unprecedented political crisis, he announced "a golden age for local government". Local government, he argued, has more freedom than ever to experiment with new solutions and is the level on which to rebuild citizens' eroding trust in government. ​

Whilst the idea of reinforcing local governments isn't new, it has somewhat lost steam in recent years. Legislation that reinforced local councils' prerogatives generated high hopes in the early 2010s, but led to disappointment as it failed to truly empower councils and to reconnect citizens with their local governments. So, could it be that renewed localism is really the answer to the UK's recent political turmoil?