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As a recently retired Finance and Contracts Director, I find it hugely encouraging that David Nicholson and LATs are marking their territory and facing down CCGs with a combination of guidance and stern leadership. Financial control and national commissioning priorities have to trump the petty local interests and prejudices of CCGs, and I am confident that ex-PCT officers/politicos within the LATs/ NCB and CCGs can weave their blend of crude and/or subtle influence. Elsewhere in HSJ we read that CCGs are often preoccupied with local clinical projects rather than the major issues which shape the spending on large populations - access, chronic conditions leading to readmission, heart disease, stroke, cancer and mental health are the issues that need to be addressed with strategic and costed commissioning plans for the 5-10 year period. If CCGs are not now producing such plans, and relating these to physical capacity and configuration of service,then it will be a long time before they can be released from central control. Good commissioning is hard to do, and in its absence within CCGs, we will have to rely on LATs working with intelligent providers to construct the local strategic plans : intelligent providers are often the best commissioners anyway !