Local councils have overstepped the mark by producing publications that ape newspapers and threaten the future of commercial publishers, the culture secretary said on Friday.

In an interview with a local paper in Yorkshire, Andy Burnham said the trend for councils to publish faux papers was “top of my in-tray at the moment”. But he ruled out any subsidy for the struggling newspaper industry. Companies such as Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror and Northcliffe Regional have seen advertising revenues plunging by up to 59 per cent in some sectors.