Pickles says imposed unitary status "a complete Horlicks"

It was DCLG questions in the House of Commons yesterday and Eric Pickles could hardly have been clearer in rejecting Lord Heseltine's call to impose unitary status on local government:

Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab): Whether he plans to implement the proposals by Lord Heseltine for unitary local government.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles): No.

Mr Bradshaw: I have to tell the Secretary of State that my constituents in Exeter will be very disappointed by his reply, not least because one of his first acts in government was to take away their council’s hard-won unitary status. Given that both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have described Lord Heseltine’s report as excellent, why does he have such a problem with this particular part of it?

Mr Pickles: It is indeed an excellent report, but I remind the right hon. Gentleman that the former permanent secretary to the Department, as its accounting officer, washed his hands of the unitary
restructuring in Devon, Norfolk and Suffolk, demanding that Labour Ministers direct him to continue. He warned that it would “impact adversely on the financial position of the public sector”.

He said:

“the evidence for such gains is mixed and representations that you have received provide no evidence to quantify such benefits”.

He also said:

“There is every likelihood of such judicial review proceedings being commenced.”

The system was a complete Horlicks, and that is why we abolished it.

Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con): My right hon. Friend is right: the diversity of local government in England is very important, and there is no “one size fits all” solution. Does he accept, however, that it was the last Conservative Government who introduced unitary authorities in the first place, and that Wiltshire has been praised by my noble Friend Lord Heseltine for getting rid of five dual-tier district authorities and replacing them with one, thereby saving an enormous amount of money, keeping the council tax frozen, and getting rid of large layers of bureaucracy in the process?

Your chance to question Eric Pickles

I have interviewed the Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles a couple of times for Conservative Home this year - in June and September.

Now it is your turn. Please post your question in the comments section. I will send the most interesting ones for Mr Pickles to answer.

It could be on his ministerial remit - housing, planning, Council Tax, transparency, localism.. Or something more personal.

 

Councils face transparency requirement on parking charges

The drive for Town Hall transparency is beinig extended to cover parking charges.

The DCLG reports:

Councils will have to publish soon as it is produced the number of off-street parking places and the revenue raised from them; the number of on-street parking places and the revenue they raise; as well as the revenue from parking fines and the number of free parking spaces available in line with the Portas Review of the High Street recommendations.

Eric Pickles says:

"We are ending an era of bureaucratic accountability and replacing it with a more open era of democratic accountability. It is right that taxpayers get to see how Town Halls spend their hard earned taxes so they can properly hold local politicians to account.

"Finally all councils have taken up the £500 transparency challenge but publication is only happening in fits and starts. By writing Town Hall transparency into law we can make certain every citizen gets open and equal access to information about local public expenditure.

"As part of that we will expose a great council cash cow cover-up unmasking punitive parking practices that hit residents in the pocket. We're calling time on local war against motorists - now, more than ever, we need to see the back of this shopping tax and encourage more people onto the high street."

Also being included are requirements for transparency on assets and grants to voluntary groups.

Good news.

What Eric did during the conference break

The Communities and Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, has offered the following update to the House of Commons:

Freezing council tax for hard-working families and pensioners

On 8 October, the Government announced new support to local authorities to enable them to freeze council tax and keep taxpayers bills down for the third year running. Freezing bills again will really help hard-working families and those on fixed incomes, such as pensioners with their cost of living.

The Government will set aside an extra £450 million to help freeze council tax bills in England. The support for local authorities means that taxpayers living in an average Band D home in England could save up to £72 compared to a five per cent rise in council tax.

The £450 million will be made available, through a new grant scheme, to local authorities which decide to freeze or reduce their council tax next year. If they do, councils, police and fire authorities in England will stand to receive £225 million of funding in both financial years 2013-14 and 2014-15, equivalent to raising their 2012-13 council tax by one per cent. Funding will also be provided to devolved administrations as a Barnett consequential.

The Local Government Chronicle makes a misleading attack on the Troubled Families programme

This week's Local Government Chronicle contains a claim (£) that the Government's Troubled Families programme is off course. It carried out a survey of councils and suggested that just 6.9% of their target number of troubled families had so far been identified. Among the councils who responded, Camden has identified just seven troubled families - out of an estimated 755. Hackney has identified nil out of an estimated 1,000. Luton has identified nil out of 525.

But this survey was based on Freedom of Information requests sent on July 26th. Since then, many councils will have got back confirmation from the Department of Work and Pensions about families who are on benefits, and who have also been identified by the council as troubled based on other criteria. This can include drug addiction, mental illness, crime and anti social behaviour, and children at risk of being taken into care or excluded from school. There is some local discretion allowed.

Of course, choosing the 120,000 most troubled families in this country can not be exact. Alternatively if fixed criteria were applied perhaps we would end up with 100,000 or 140,000.The reality is that large numbers of them have been identified by councils, and that work is now underway on turning them round.  Councils that succeed in doing so will be financially rewarded.

Pickles says unions shouldn't just pay for their own staff but also for collecting their subs

Speaking to a Freedom Association fringe meeting during the Conservative Conference in Birmingham, the Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said:

"I am delighted to announce today in relatively short time we will be offering advice to local authorities both in terms of trade union time and check-off. I want to retain the independence of trades unions and therefore it is massively important that they pay for things themselves."

This is most welcome. It is not just the abuse of taxpayer funded union officials but also the provision of free office space belonging to the taxpayer and the state collecting union subs via the payroll.

The former Defence Secretary Liam Fox said at the same meeting:

At the Ministry of Defence in our first year of government, 2010-2011, we had to make some very difficult and painful decisions because of the financial catastrophe left behind by Labour - both in the Department and in the country more generally.  Allowances were reviewed, spending programmes cut back and both military and civilian numbers were sadly reduced. 

Yet in the same year, in this one department, 423 civil servants carried out what they called "trade union responsibilities" at a cost to the taxpayer, and the MoD budget, of £3.9 million. This is an absolute disgrace. That money could have been spent on improving service accommodation or allowances or manpower. It was instead spent on trade union officials who – and wait for this - unbelievably have the right to e-mail every single person involved in the MoD. My own Special Advisers and my own Private Office were receiving e-mails from the unions telling us how wicked our own policies were and why they should be resisted.

A conference star turn from Eric Pickles

A strong performance both in style and substance from the Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles at the Conservative conference in Birmingham this afternoon.

There was a personal account about his own political journey:

I wasn't always a Conservative.

I was born into a Labour family.

My great-grandfather was one of the founding members of the local Independent Labour Party.

As a 14 year old, my birthday present was a book by Leon Trotsky.

Despite Prescott's bluster his misuse of a Government credit card shows him unfit for office

When he was a Cabinet Minister Lord Prescott showed the most disgraceful self indulgence in using a Government credit card for his personal benefit. Due to transparency rules brought in by the new Government this spending has come to light. Rather than have the decency to apologise and reimburse the taxpayer Lord Prescott has made the false claim that the items were cloned and that he was victim of some kind of conspiracy.

At least Lord Prescott seems to have persuaded The Guardian. Most absurd is the claim that he has been exonerated by Sir Jeremy Heywood, the head of the Cabinet Office. Oh really? Then why doesn't Lord Prescott publish the letter or authorise Sir Jeremy to do so? It seems odd to block publication of a letter about transparency.

Where I think Lord Prescott has a valid point is that we should also be able to see the spending on Government procurement cards from other departments. Again the information should be released as far back as records are kept. Why, for example, is the Education Secretary Michael Gove protecting his predecessor Ed Balls? Let's see what restaurants Mr Balls went to at our expense between 2007 and 2010 when he was Secretary of State for Children, Families and Schools.

What about Ed Miliband's spending of taxpayer's money for personal use during his time as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2008-10? If he has nothing to hide in the way of Lord Prescott style extravagance then doubtless he would welcome publication. Or what about David Miliband's spending at the Foreign Office?

Lord Prescott is right to demand equal treatment. But that should be achieved not by secrecy for his spending but transparency for all.

Brandon Lewis MP: I want to make myself obselete

Brandon Lewis MP, the new Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government, says the man in Whitehall does not know best and that further power must be devolved

Before becoming a Member of Parliament I served as Leader of the Conservative Group and then as Leader of the Council. You can imagine, then, my excitement at being offered the opportunity to take up a position at the Department for Communities and Local Government. Better still, my brief specifically includes Local Government, alongside responsibility for fire services and pubs.

My time at Brentwood Council was, I believe, essential experience for me before becoming an MP. In my opinion, local government is a hugely important part of government in our day to day to life. We see the actions of local councils when we take out our rubbish, get in our cars, get on a bus, take our kids to school – the list is endless. While life in Westminster fluctuates between one frenetic activity and another, local councils continue to monitor and improve the services that we, as residents, often take for granted on a day to day basis.

When I am out and about in Great Yarmouth talking to constituents I am often struck that, while they may have firm opinions on one or two national policies, the uniting factor always comes down to street lights, potholes or similar. I am very proud, therefore, to be able to play a part in one of the most exciting times for local government in many years.

Eric Pickles interviewed for ConservativeHome: "The prime test for any Conservative council is: Would somebody queuing for a bus know that it was a Conservative authority?"

Eric Pickles remains in post as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. The team he leads has almost completely changed.  Apart from Baroness Hanham, it's all new faces. Mark Prisk replaced Grant Shapps. Nick Boles replaced Greg Clark. Brandon Lewis replaced Bob Neill.

So when I went to see Mr Pickles in his House of Commons office above St Stephen's Entrance, I asked how his new team were settling in. Would they be less combative? For instance, would Mark Prisk be a less combative Housing Minister than Grant Shapps?

"Mark is going to be an extremely competent Minister, I've known him a long time. He will be happy to have a go. I think Nick will be the same. Brandon will definitely be looking to rock the house."

At the Party Conference last year, the Pickles speech saw lots of cheering policy announcements - right to buy, incentives to restore weekly bin collections, plans to get rid of trade union Pilgrims and Council equalities sex snoopers.

More is promised this year in Birmingham. "It will be a good conference, " he says. "We will have lots of things to say on local government.  It will also be about making sure Ministers are out there. Local Government, Planning, and Housing Ministers will be at lots of fringe events, lots of receptions, and eager to talk to Council leaders. I've had a rule since I've been at the Department that council leaders can get in here to see me and other Ministers - that was certainly not something that applied under Labour."