Councils should fly county flags and put up signs to indicate where historic municipal boundaries lay to encourage families to find out more about their history, a Government minister has said .

Jake Berry, who describes himself as a “proud Lancastrian”, has ordered his civil servants in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to draft new guidance for English local authorities on promoting their traditional county links.

The Northern Powerhouse minister complained that the “English lion has been reduced to the Cheshire Cat by wet civic adherence to local government reorganisations", adding “with Brexit just around the corner it’s time it’s time he roared again across England”.

The Government changed Whitehall rules to allow local and county flags to be flown without planning permission in 2012.

Then it issued planning guidance in 2014 allowing councils to put up traditional counties boundary signs.