Communities Secretary urges greater provision of services across local authority boundaries

The Communities Secretary this week called for much greater provision of services across local authority boundaries.

Speaking at the Local Government Association’s annual conference in Bournemouth, Eric Pickles said councils should have to justify how they work to voters.

He asked: “Is it really necessary to have separate education or separate social services departments? These sorts of mergers could actually make services work together, across boundaries, much more effectively. And it will free councillors to be focusing on what’s happening within neighbourhoods.”

The minister said having chief executives and elected leaders responsible for the same thing was “both expensive and pointless”.

“Couldn’t chief execs bring more to the table by working across boundaries, rather than replicating what the leader should be doing?”

The Secretary of State also said he wanted to “liberate” local authorities from regulation and red tape.

“It’s time to get rid of all the absurdities which are still on the statute book for no reason,” he said. “Like the law from 1919 which says that when councils want to buy new land for allotments, I’m supposed to sign it off.”

Predicting a “bonfire of the inanities”, the minister called on local authorities to tell the government about outmoded, outdated and obsolete secondary legislation. “We can dump it on the scrap heap together,” he claimed.

Pickles also said he would “set the pace” when it came to procurement, announcing that the Department for Communities and Local Government and its agencies would put all spending over £500 online.

He cited a situation where two major central government departments went to market on the same day for new electricity contracts, but had not spoken to each other first. “Instead of combining their purchasing power to drive prices down, suppliers played them off against each other. Prices actually went up.”

The minister said he would also be publishing the plan to shake up the DCLG shortly.

In previews of his speech, it was predicted that the Communities Secretary would say: "Is it really right, in this day and age, to have separate planning departments? Lawyers? Communications teams? Wouldn't it be better if people were working together? That's especially important for the highest levels and the most expensive people."

However, this was apparently left out of the final text of the speech.