By the BBC's Rory MacLean

As he outlined the proposals for regional assemblies to parliament the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was keen, when the opportunity presented itself, to lay to rest any suggestions he might be about to retire.

He was told, to cheers, by Labour's Austin Mitchell the MP for Great Grimsby, that a poll on the local BBC Radio Humberside had shown that he was a potential First Minister of a new Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Assembly.

Mr Prescott said he was happy where he was and he did not want to feed the parliamentary press gallery any ideas that he was facing retirement.

However in terms of his career this final bit of devolution could well provide his political legacy.

He has been a supporter of devolution for a long time.

He has described the proposals in the White paper "Your Region - Your Choice Revitalising the English Regions" as the conclusion of a political dream that he has held for decades.

But what will that dream be in reality?

The North East of England is being tipped as the first place to see a referendum.

Thorny questions

This would be followed by a reorganisation of local councils so that there will only be a single tier of authorities under an assembly rather than the current structure of county councils and districts councils.

Mr Prescott has left the thorny questions as to which councils should be abolished to achieve unitary authorities to an independent electoral boundary committee.

This committee will also decide the area covered by a North East Regional Assembly.

The cost of running this authority is estimated at about �20m.

More government?

It would have a budget of about �350m mostly supplied by central government and it would have an influence on the spending of a further �500m of government funds.

But despite the government's commitment to devolving power down from the centre the assembly still would not have the power to raise extra money regionally from council tax payers for particular projects like transport or housing without permission from central government.

In the end the success or failure of this idea, according to Tony Travers the local government expert at the London School of Economics, could well rest on the public decision on whether it wants what it could perceive as even more government.