Sending officials from the centre to help a region deliver a project may be useful. It isn't necessarily devolution. An official can work in Manchester while still answering to London.
The distinction matters because the problem isn't only how quickly central decisions get implemented. It is which decisions a place can make for itself and whether its people can hold the decision-makers responsible.
A long history of central power
England developed strong central institutions unusually early. Domesday Book is a remarkable illustration of the reach of royal administration after the conquest. But that doesn't mean local liberties never existed, that the survey covered every place or that the modern Treasury was already inevitable in 1086.
The relationship between central and local power has changed repeatedly. Historical continuity can help explain a habit without proving that the habit never faced alternatives.
The practical problem today is the dependence of local decisions on powers and funding controlled elsewhere. A mayor can be blamed for a result while lacking authority over some of the choices needed to achieve it.
Follow the decision and the money
Extra staff may help clear an obstacle. A centrally funded project may be exactly what a region needs. Neither tells us how much control the region has gained.
Can local representatives choose a different priority? What money can they raise or retain? What conditions accompany it? Can voters identify which decisions belong to their mayor and which remain with ministers?
Tax powers aren't the only measure of devolution, and they create difficult questions about unequal local resources. But a place with responsibilities and little discretion over its income remains heavily dependent on whoever controls the grant.
I would like reforms judged by the authority they transfer, rather than the number of officials relocated. Helping a town carry out Whitehall's plan and allowing it to decide more of its own future are different achievements. We should say which one is being offered.