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Communities secretary, Eric Pickles, surprised delegates at the LGA's annual conference this week, when he attacked councils over their use of ‘non jobs', and told The MJ town hall chief executive posts should be scrapped. Mr Pickles' self-declared ‘vulgar' attack on council chiefs came despite growing signs of consensus between local and central government leaders over how best to deliver public service improvements, despite Britain's impending spending cuts. The MJ discovered this week that Mr Pickles and senior LGA staff are close to hammering out a deal, under which local government will assume responsibility for a new set of public sector ‘outcomes' in return for greater control over how services are delivered. Mr Pickles is even poised to implement legal changes designed to help councils meet their new responsibilities – including possible plans to allow the LGA direct access to the Improvement and Development Agency's top-sliced CLG funding. But the secretary of state's gruff approach to his first LGA conference temporarily threatened to disrupt the otherwise-harmonious relationship. In a thinly-veiled reference to Mr Pickles' statements, LGA chair, Dame Margaret Eaton, told delegates in Bournemouth: ‘We need national politicians to stop chasing cheap headlines at our expense.' In pre-conference leaks to the media, Mr Pickles alleged there were recent roles created for cheer-leading co-ordinators and waste service communications officers at town halls, and described them as non jobs. Talking directly to The MJ later, he went one step further and claimed the role of chief executives was also a non job. He called on councils to scrap the post and establish German-style executive-leaders, or to share chief executives with other authorities. Mr Pickles is currently hiring his own chief executive at the CLG. But, he argued: ‘To say they [council chief executives] have the same power as a permanent secretary is just plain wrong… it's a point I feel very strongly about.' He added: ‘I am not driving this, it is the public.' Despite this, the Conservative secretary of state also vowed to give councils freedom from micromanagement in exchange for more transparency and efficiency. In an exclusive interview with The MJ prior to the LGA conference, Mr Pickles called himself ‘local government's best chum', and said ‘I'm here to liberate it.' He added: ‘It's been a prisoner, chained to a radiator, at the whim of the regulators. I want to set it free.' However, the extent of the cuts facing councils as they prepare for greater freedoms was laid bare by a New Local Government Network report on 7 July, which estimated that councils faced cuts of up to one-third – or £12bn – in central government grants following the October Spending Review. Dame Margaret told the conference that while councils had to accept cuts were inevitable, they should only occur through ‘radical reform'. She said, referring to Total Place or place-based budgeting, that £100bn could be saved over five years while protecting frontline services, adding: ‘To make the big savings we need to put everything into the pot – health education, policing and the huge range of local government services. We shouldn't use the noble desire to protect doctors, nurses and teachers to defend institutional bureaucracy that could be done better.' And she insisted ministers were listening, saying: ‘Since 6 May my telephone has been ringing. My diary has been filled with new ministers, including Eric, wanting to know about local government.'

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WHITEHALL

Pickles stokes tensions

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