A personal view from East Devon District Council leader Paul Arnott.

Over the last four and a bit years writing these columns, I have tried very hard to play the ball and not the person, or indeed the political party. In at least half a dozen of these columns, before raising a criticism of government actions, I have said that many of my local and national friends are Conservatives. Having raised alarms about the new government’s initial policy to our sewage and waterways crisis, a fortnight back, I’d better state that many other pals support Labour.

However, with that established, and genuinely wishing well for the new Labour government - which has inherited a dire legacy from the Conservatives (and yes, let’s be frank, some of that, albeit more than a decade ago, was naively enabled by my lot, the Lib Dems during the coalition) - and not wishing to offend Labour mates in the least – but, well, Jeezaloo, what an abysmal start.

You may well ask how I, a mere district council leader, has the temerity to say that. The answer is that in the three areas of government that I have to deal with every day in East Devon – the future of Housing & Planning, the future of devolving powers down to the regions, and how to get a grip on our failed sewage infrastructure, the new government appears to be bereft of weighty ideas.

Yes, they are making big statements about hundreds of thousands more houses, giving more powers to spend locally, and tough action against the privatized water companies, but when you ask for any detail, it is – thus far at least – at GCSE level, no better. Believe me, I’ve been sitting in meetings with other leaders of all political colours from right to left, with the Local Government Association, with the huge new intake of MPs in the region, and everyone is wondering when there will be any clues from the heart of government.

I just don’t get it. I do understand that Sir Keir Starmer’s number one mission for the last year at least was to remove the Conservatives. But with every intelligent commentator long predicting a Labour win, did he not have a back office team preparing policy ready for publication in the first hundred days? Now it appears not, and that there has been depressing Blair/Brown style feuding in the key leadership teams, leading to the removal of Sue Gray.

Now I am going to seriously irk any Labour pals. I’d rather kick myself in the head than accept free clothes, hospitality, concert tickets etc. Only last weekend a (Conservative) pal was teasing me about freebies for councillors, and I was able to tell him that for me they are non-existent. To be able to say that is one of the very reasons not to take freebies which, by the way, if they are worth more than £50 MUST be registered if you are an EDDC councillor, with a potential disciplinary punishment if you don’t.

So, what a terrible start. But I still sincerely wish the new government well. And I suggest that in future any new incumbents talk not of the first hundred days but the first year. I know what it’s like to inherit decades of Conservative mess, and it takes years not days to sort out.