New man at the top

The change of government has, unsurprisingly, brought a new figurehead to CLG. With exact details still filtering through, and the emergency budget due as we go to press, it’s hard to be too precise on what this could mean, but LGE takes a look at what Eric Pickles may mean for the sector.

The appointment of Pickles as new communities and local government minister may raise a few eyebrows in the sector, not least given his commitment when leader of Bradford Council to “wipe out municipal socialism forever.”

No small ambition for a man who has seemingly recovered admirably from a youth during which he claims to have been “massively inclined towards communism”. One quick invasion of Czechoslovakia later, and 1968 found Pickles joining the Conservative Party as the tanks rolled into Prague. His protest was seemingly not the quickest route to power. Vaclav Havel, for example, became increasingly politically active following the Prague Spring, and 25 years later he was president of the newly formed Czech Republic, having bravely resisted years of Soviet occupation to finally achieve independence. Pickles, meanwhile, has taken a further 17 years to attain a significant ministerial role, having bravely resisted years of an increasingly limping Labour Party to achieve a minority government propped up by the LibDems. Whether his own administration will follow Havel’s into a second term remains to be seen.

Still, his rise has been steady, having served a term early in his career as chairman of his local Young Conservatives and latterly risen to the heights of party chairman. Clearly Pickles has experience of local government, having spent three years as council leader in Bradford from 1988- 1991, and is a long standing champion of reducing regional bureaucracy. He is also a long standing advocate of funding councils to build affordable housing – his efforts while in Bradford were held up as a national exemplar by the Tory administration of the day, and this is seemingly one area that the Town and Country Planning Association feels can benefit from Pickles’ input. Interim Chief Executive Kate Henderson said: “Eric Pickles has sound experience as former Shadow Communities Secretary and prior to that as Shadow Minister for Local Government. There is now a genuine opportunity to focus on the real priorities for the country - pressing climate change and housing need - these issues must take centre stage in CLG’s work.”

It will be interesting to see how his efforts in the field fare facing the slew of imminent cuts that authorities are nervously anticipating.

Pickles was appointed shadow CLG minister in 2007, and in 2008 he announced plans for a future Conservative administration to purge ‘town hall fat cats’. According to contemporary reports in The Times, under the plans “dozens of council chiefs who earn more than cabinet ministers would lose their jobs as clusters of councils merged their frontline services and backroom operations to provide better value for money.” Interestingly, according to figures published in the Times report, of the eight highest paid chief executives at the time, six were running Conservative councils.

Panicking chief executives aside, the proposals could see a dramatic change to the way services are delivered locally, and if not managed properly an equally dramatic change to the quality of service received. Regional Development Associations are also to be scrapped as the Tories take the knives to what they see as unelected, unaccountable and expensive quangoes, to be replace by as yet fairly non-specific regional partnerships between business, local government and regeneration/ development experts, along with regional plans like the East of England Plan.

In reality though, with the scale of cuts promised, even by the less cut-hungry LibDem partners in the coalition government, ‘guesswork’ would be at best an optimistic appraisal of attempts to predict the likely effect of Pickles and his new colleagues on the sector. The coalition has already promised “radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups,” and stated that “this will include a full review of local government finance.”

Beyond that, only time will tell.