The way of running our country has been too centralised for too long. We want to have local people in charge of local decisions,” he said. “We’ve made a start in big cities but we’ve also made a start in some of our most rural counties.

I don’t think there’s a single model – what works in Manchester is not going to be the same for what works in Devon ,” he added. “We have to wait for local people and elected representatives to come forward with their proposals.

But I’m really open to lots of exciting ideas. Power is going to be brought much closer to the people.”