Eric Pickles likes
nothing more than to talk about rubbish and bins, but ask him about the things
that have really affected families in England and he suddenly goes all quiet. I
think it’s because he really is out of touch with the damage his own policies
have created, so here are five of his ‘achievements’ that he somehow managed to
leave out of his list.
1. Imposing
higher council tax bills on the poorest families by cutting funding for council
tax benefit, and then trying to blame it all on local authorities and giving
top earners a tax cut at the same time.
2. Making
unfair cuts to local government, by hitting the poorest areas hardest. When
West Oxfordshire – the Prime Minister’s local authority – gets an increase and
Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield - among others –
are slashed, something’s gone wrong.
3. Talking
a lot about localism while taking new powers to control council publications,
remove planning decisions from local communities and weaken planning protection
for our high streets and town centres.
4. Wasting
a quarter of a billion pounds of public money on trying to persuade councils to
change their rubbish collection arrangements, as a result of which just one
council decided to move back to weekly rubbish collections.
5. Cutting
the budget for investment in affordable housing by 60% and has presided over
the biggest housing crisis in generation with housing completions now at their
peacetime lowest level since the 1920s.
And to top it all, Mr
Pickles doesn’t seem the least bit interested in standing up for local
government. That’s not what thousands of hard-working councillors need in the
way of leadership.Hilary Benn
Shadow Secretary of
State for Communities and Local Government
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