Eric Pickles

  • Channelling Charlton

    14 September 2021

    Diary can always count on our old chum/adversary (*delete depending on mood) Eric Pickles to come up with a striking image.

  • Pickles praises mayors during pandemic

    09 September 2021

    Former local government secretary Eric Pickles has admitted he was a ‘late convert’ to the idea of metro mayors.

  • Uproar at move towards 'national bin service'

    01 June 2021

    Councils are preparing to fight government plans to create what they fear will be a ‘national bin service’.

  • LGA distances itself from fire safety guide

    13 April 2021

    The Local Government Association (LGA) has distanced itself from guidance hosted on its website that has been criticised in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.

  • Fresh league table fears

    16 June 2020

    The prospect of council performance being ranked in a league table has been raised again this week.

  • Government stands firm after Pickles plea

    12 August 2019

    The Government has said it ‘would not be appropriate’ to pay legal costs to whistleblowers in electoral fraud cases despite a former communities secretary revealing he fought for it to happen.

  • Pickles: Fraud can change council control

    24 July 2019

    There are still weaknesses in the running of local elections, a House of Lords select committee has heard.

  • Councils to appeal 'town hall Pravdas' ruling

    14 June 2019

    Waltham Forest and Hackney LBCs will appeal after a judge backed Government attempts to stop them publishing a council newspaper every two weeks.

  • Councils on reserves danger list named

    28 May 2019

    Eleven councils in danger of running out of reserves have been publicly named in the face of continuing concerns about the creation of league tables.

  • Savings don't stop cavings

    18 June 2018

    Ex-communities secretary Eric Pickles is soon to be elevated to join his House of Lords chums, heralding a new chapter in his political career.

  • Pickles for Strictly?

    14 May 2018

    These days secretaries of state at Marsham Street barely have time to gather their thoughts before they are catapulted to another part of Whitehall.

  • Davis has Pickles for lunch

    23 February 2018

    Former communities secretary Eric Pickles was rather fond of a free lunch.

  • Declining pay is an issue for both staff and chiefs

    26 July 2017

    It seems like another era when communities secretary Eric Pickles lambasted council chief executives for earning ‘more than the prime minister.’

  • The pick of Pickles

    24 May 2017

    Diary has long been unashamed in its appreciation for former communities secretary Sir Eric Pickles.

  • 4 Wheel Drive Woman on Eric Pickles

    26 April 2017

    Gosh, Tarquin, this talk of a General Election is absolutely exhausting.

  • Pickles to stand down as MP

    24 April 2017

    Former communities secretary Sir Eric Pickles has announced he is standing down as MP for Brentwood and Ongar after 25 years.

  • Councils dig into reserves to put off hard decisions

    14 February 2017

    Almost two out of three key finance decision-makers plan to dip into their reserves this year, research by The MJ and LGiU think-tank has found.

  • A million pounds of fun

    24 January 2017

    Diary has long lamented the decline of local newspapers and its impact on democracy.

  • Rebel councils stand firm in face of DCLG crackdown

    16 December 2016

    Three rebel local authorities flouting the Department for Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) clampdown on so-called town hall Pravdas have defiantly vowed to continue publishing them.

  • Sajid Javid has yet to set the agenda

    31 August 2016

    Sajid Javid is yet to make his mark on local government policy but his rhetoric on council budgets could be a cause for concern, says Heather Jameson