Pickles promises Localism Bill on Monday after further delay

Eric Pickles has promised that the long-awaited Localism Bill – containing "lots of power to councils" – will be published on Monday, with the Communities Secretary using his Twitter page this evening (9 December) to make the announcement. 

Speaking at a conference earlier in the day, the local government minister Bob Neill said that the Bill would contain around 200 clauses, rather than the 300 originally expected, and that many of these would be there to repeal existing legislation rather than contain new measures.

The Localism Bill was widely expected to be published today, after being pushed back from November due – officially – to “pressures on the Parliamentary timetable”.

The minister also confirmed that the similarly-delayed local government funding settlement would be published next week.