Pickles promises general power in Localism Bill, criticises councils for lacking ambition

The general power of competence that local government “has been crying out for” will be included in the Localism Bill, the Communities Secretary has promised.

Eric Pickles said he totally supported the idea, but also warned that “obviously there have got to be limits”.

Speaking at the Local Government Association, the Communities Secretary called on local authorities to make more use of their existing wellbeing powers. “I ask myself the question: why is it that only around 15% of councils have used their power to promote wellbeing? Why a measly 15%?”

The minister said he loved the idea of “community budgets” or “place based area budgets” and insisted there was strong support within government for the concept.

He suggested this approach would go way beyond Total Place, which “may have been a step in the right direction, but it was the smallest, most begrudging step possible”.

Total Place was “like loosening the leash a tiny bit” rather than simply letting local government off it, he said. “It was a bit like local government was a 15-year-old girl with really strict parents. They let you go down the dance for the first time. But then totally cramped your style by parking round the corner to watch what you were up to and made you go home at half past nice. Not so much Total Place as ‘know your place’.”

The Communities Secretary also called on councils to play a leading role in their local economy through the new local enterprise partnerships.

Pickles criticised local authorities for showing a lack of ambition, for example in relation to the proposals that came forward under the Sustainable Communities Act.

He said: “We are committed to embracing the best ideas. And we want to work with you to decide which ones we can make progress on over the summer.

“But to be frank, there aren’t all that many. Some of them are either barmy or banal. And what was even more worrying is that councils were asking for the power to do things that they can already do.”

The Communities Secretary acknowledged that there were frustrations and blockages in councils’ way, but argued that some of the existed in people’s minds rather than reality.

He promised to “turn Whitehall upside” down to make the new relationship between local and central government work. But he also called on the LGA as an organisation to embrace the same spirit of openness, transparency and accountability he was asking of councils.