There is a harsh message underlying the Legal Services Commission's plans to cull the number of law firms with criminal contracts.

It is that there will not be any cash injection into the system, however convincing the case for it may be.

So if the pot is to remain the same size, the only option is to reduce the number of hands dipping into that pot.

It means the future of publicly funded work is starting to take shape.

No longer will firms be able to do the occasional legal aid file.

Large practices whose income will in the main be publicly funded will develop, tooled up with the latest IT to ensure their efficient operation and offer economies of scale.

These changes herald pain on the high street, especially in the short term, although fewer criminal law specialist firms does not necessarily mean fewer criminal defence solicitors.

To gain support from the profession, the commission must make good on the other side of the deal.

It must cut the bureaucracy for those left in the field, and give them greater flexibility and control over their own budgets.

It must address the growing problem of advice deserts by offering proper incentives to the remaining firms to expand into under-served areas.

If it is accepted that legal aid is not working in its present form, and that political reality means the cure-all of more money is not available, it follows that something radical has to be done.

The question now is whether this is the right something.