Sarah Townsend,
Regen.net,
8 June 2010
New communities secretary Eric Pickles will make devolving power from Whitehall to local councils his number one priority, he told an audience at the House of Commons last night.
Speaking at an event organised by think-tank the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU), Pickles stressed that implementing a "localist" agenda would be the most important objective for his new department.
He told the local government leaders, councillors and officers attending the event: "I want to give an indication of my three most important priorities. These are: localism, localism and localism.
"I will make sure that localism is not something conveniently put away in a box, but wrapped up in the very DNA of the department."
Pickles added: "I am determined - as I know many in local government are - to shift power away from central government and pass it to local people and community groups. It is all about empowering the citizens to act collectively on local issues."
The former chair of the Local Government All Party Parliamentary Group then said of regional spatial strategies: "You might be wondering why I have not mentioned regional spatial strategies in my speech, and that is because I've been taught never to speak ill of the dead."
