Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan, who took up his post this week, said: ‘If you look at their big challenges around growth, around health and care, around public services more generally, you've got to have local government as part of that.

‘It's a key player in the big things facing the country.'

Speaking exclusively to our sister title, The MJ, he said he was confident the new Government understood the issues facing local authorities, both financially and the increasing pressure on councils to act as a ‘local welfare state'.

He said: ‘That whole relationship between the centre and local government, welfare and those vulnerable people who need support, needs to be rethought. That can't happen straight away.

‘These are big, big issues where we've got to rethink who does what to support people, and what can the state afford.  Local government is right at the heart of that big equation and question. We've got to get to a point where that becomes clearer and more stable again.'

It is ‘exactly the same set of issues' in health, he suggested, but it will take a decade to untangle the problems as a ‘collective endeavour' across central and local government, and the health service.

‘I think the reason I've been appointed is because they want more knowledge and connection with local government' he added.