“While we welcome the promises of further devolution to local government and a long awaited social care white paper in today’s Queen’s Speech, we will unfortunately have to add them to the long list of items that successive governments have promised and not delivered for councils.

“For too long, devolution, social care and local finance reform have continued to be pushed to the sidelines and given the back seat to Brexit. However, we hope today’s announcements are not just empty words.

“With local government at the forefront in providing so many of the necessary services across our communities, any further delay on social care reform will be detrimental to lives up and down this country. A devolution White Paper by Christmas would be a real gift to the sector and one that is so needed to ensure local decisions are made by local communities.”