An inquiry chaired by Lord Bob Kerslake has called for primary legislation to be introduced to protect local government.

A report, which was published by the inquiry, also said more must be done to encourage government departments to support devolution.

The inquiry into Better Devolution was established by the All-Party parliamentary Group on Reform, Decentralisation and Devolution. It looked at how to achieve greater devolution across the country.

Some of the issues brought up by the inquiry included the scope of devolution deals to date and said all levels of the government must “establish a new understanding of accountability, with citizens looking to local leadership first, and central government second”.

The report added: “At a political level, devolution can only succeed if the electorate perceive a shift in accountability from national politicians to local.

“The temptation for central government to step in when something goes wrong at a local level must be resisted if we are to see this shift occur.

“There needs to be a new legal basis for the independence of local government, made through primary legislation.”

One of the main issues to be brought up during the inquiry was not all parts of the government are backing the drive to devolve powers to regions. Instead, the focus on growth is limiting the scope of devolution deals.

“It was put to us that despite the apparent open door attitude of the government, in practice there has been greater engagement from some government departments than others; a notion of so-called ‘no go’ areas was raised,” the report stated.

“There was also consensus that far from bespoke negotiations, the deals done to date are somewhat template arrangements with little room for variability, the overriding focus being on growth.”

The inquiry said to incorporate devolution successfully across the nation, “all of the UK civil service” will need reforming. There needs to be a more equal partnership between central and local government, as well as change within Whitehall to allow more services to be delivered locally.

Lord Kerslake said: “Greater devolution has the potential to deliver a stronger economy, better services and a stronger Union. But what we are doing now is piecemeal and incoherent.

“As we lead up to the EU referendum and consider our identity within Europe, the need for a wider debate on how we better empower our local areas and govern is greater than ever.

“The time has come for a bigger conversation – one involving all citizens – if we want to reduce the gap between those that govern and those that are governed, and ensure devolution has a strong and lasting legacy whatever the result in June.”