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In an exclusive interview, the local government and communities secretary, Eric Pickles, tells Michael Burton his views on localism, the role of the chief executive, and the future of Total Place The former leader of Bradford City Council-now-turned secretary of state is seated at the end of his rectangular office table in his braces when I arrive, and greets me with: ‘I've known The MJ for 30 years!' He then glances at my notepad logo, a souvenir from a recent conference, and booms with what appears to be a twinkle in his eye: ‘SOLACE? A fine organisation!' I have 24 questions and about 20 minutes in which to complete them, so I crack on. The first task is to ask Mr Pickles, leader of Bradford in the 1980s, whether he is a ‘critical friend of local government or a critic', to which he responds: ‘I'm local government's best chum. I love it to bits. I'm here to liberate it. ‘It's been a prisoner, chained to a radiator, at the whim of the regulators. I want to set it free!' Pickles: ‘The days of chief executives picking up £150,000 to run a small council are over.' The next question is about localism – his mantra. In the last few weeks, he has made his views robustly known on such issues as chief executive salaries, fortnightly bin collections and council newspapers. Surely, I suggest, this is a matter for councils, not him, so how does that square with his localism agenda? He replies: ‘A chum is allowed to be critical. If you see your friend out in inappropriate clothing, then you say so. I've not issued any powers to reduce high salaries. I hope the public will ensure that happens. ‘The days of chief executives picking up £150,000 to run a small council are over.' He continues to maintain that the dual structure of executive leader and chief executive is unsustainable. ‘We don't need an executive leader and a chief executive. We've got two not-even-complementary structures.' He calls such a scenario ‘Doppelspitze', based on a German constitutional model. His press aide later e-mails me with the description, which is, as follows: ‘In the 1990s, the Länder of Nordrhein-Westfalen introduced direct mayoral elections and transformed the mayoral position from a leader of the council to a chief of the municipal administration, abolishing what is described in Germany as Doppelspitze (dual leadership) of the mayor and chief executive.' Mr Pickles believes there will have to be fewer chief executives, and that more leaders will take on the function, maintaining a head of paid service who could include another responsibility, such as finance, in their brief. Alternatively, a chief executive might span more than one council, answering to their respective leaders. In his own constituency, Brentwood in Essex, the council chief's position is held by Joanna Killian, who is also chief executive of Essex CC. So, does he have a poor view of chief executives? He replies: ‘A lot of chief executives are very nice people whom one can take home to meet one's mum. But they haven't got a job anymore. All of the position could be subsumed into the leader's role.' He is keen on mergers, believing the main route to savings is through the back office. He says: ‘I want to see a lot more back-office integration, but keeping the democratic accountability, putting neighbourhoods at the centre of service delivery.' He argues that cross-boundary mergers of services and managements will reduce costs, leaving the councillors to focus on neighbourhoods. The mergers should be ambitious. ‘If authorities bordering London want to share with London boroughs, then why shouldn't they? Just imagine the power of Essex and Kent if they started working together!' One of his first decisions was to scrap the planned unitaries for Devon, Suffolk and Norfolk. So, bearing in mind that merging council functions seems to be the prime way of reducing costs, why is he opposed to unitary government? He replies: ‘I love unitaries. They're a great form of government. But we can't afford to have local authorities messing about for two years. It's an old-fashioned way of reorganisation. ‘We should reorganise around informal structures which should follow function to avoid duplication.' He admits that Total Place has been on the ‘back burner' and ‘we haven't had a couple of meetings' but, ‘given that neighbourhoods are the key, we're looking beyond Total Place'. While supporting the concept, he clearly wants to junk the name, adding: ‘It sounds like a seedy American soap opera. I'm an old guy. I remember when it was called one-stop shops. ‘I've always liked the idea of a single point for folks covering the council, education, police, and health.' Asked about possible cuts of 40% in the CLG's budget, he says: ‘Where did that come from?' He adds: ‘Anyway, it's over four years, and we haven't even allocated any figures yet.' I also ask him whether it is wise to have a freeze in council tax at a time of spending cuts, thus reducing councils' tax base, to which he retorts: ‘I can't believe you said that! We're trying to help householders by helping councils to keep tax down.' A fortnight ago, he complained to the Audit Commission that it was ordering councils to drop weekly bin collections, an accusation the commission robustly denied, maintaining his complaint was based on an internal guidance paper. Asked for his response, he says, referring to the paper: ‘Then it is a case of the law of unintended consequences.All I've done is stop councils being forced by the regulator into fortnightly collections. If they wish to return to weekly ones, they can do so.' Now that the CAA has been scrapped, will there be any other regulatory role for the commission or, indeed, will it have a role in the grant-funding regime as heralded in the Conservative Green Paper 12 months ago? Mr Pickles replies: ‘We need to have a discussion with the commission about its future function in a friendly way.' Does he have full confidence in its chairman, Michael O'Higgins. Mr Pickles comments: ‘He's a lovely man, and I've known him for years.' So, is it possible that the LGA might pick up the performance-monitoring role of the commission? Mr Pickles, referring to the way the LGA intervened in Doncaster, says: ‘The LGA has been fantastically efficient. I can't praise it too much. I've been impressed by its chairman [ex-Bradford leader, Dame Margaret Eaton], by its officers, and by the clarity of its message.' He intends to spend a good two days down at the LGA conference this week, meeting delegates, as ‘I'm a chatty soul.' An insider says he intends treating the event like ‘a party conference.' But Mr Pickles insists: ‘I want to make it clear that if you're a Labour council leader, my door is open. This administration will not be partisan.' The 20 minutes is up. Amazingly, I have managed to complete most of the questions without interrupting Mr Pickles in full flow. As if I would dare.

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WHITEHALL

Plenty of relish from Pickles

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