Secretary of State answers the public's #AskPickles questions

Click on the links below to see Mr Pickles' answers to particular questions

Local Democracy

• Do you agree with Michael Heseltine's call 'I want powerful councillors and I want them to be paid properly'? (@Efrogwraig)
• Will you bring council meetings into the 21st century by ending rules requiring council agendas to be sent to Cllrs in hard copy? (@ADSO_UK with similar questions from others, including: @maidstonebc, @tweatirs, @martin_whelan81, @gibson_jenni)
• Can government stop same councillors sitting on two local councils, lower (for example, Town) and upper (for example, Unitary)? Weakens democracy. (@BabaEnglish)
• Two days ago (i.e. on 2 December) Heseltine said in the Guardian that making a county council unitary could save them £10 million a year. Shouldn't this be pursued? (@jmalexander1982)

Localism

• How does 'localism' align with DCLG diktat to local authorities to lower council tax and enforce weekly waste collections? (@mister_phil)
• Do you enjoy local government bashing? Please stop it's demoralising. (@MarbellysB)

Local Government Finance

• Eric why are many northern, urban areas suffering much bigger cuts – more than five times per head than those in the south? (This question was asked by a large number of people)
• Why does government fund rural councils by up to £100 per head less than urban councils when services cost same? (@Alexfolkes)
• Will you support an independent commission into local government funding to ensure the fairer distribution of funds? (@RobWhiteman; Rob Whiteman is the Chief Executive of CIPFA)

Funding for local services

• How will you help the 150 women domestic abuse victims who are being turned away from refuges every day due to budget cuts. (@JoRust45)
• Eric what will you do for Oxfordshire’s children who face losing 38 of their 44 children’s centres? (@NeilCrowley and several others)
• Eric where do the homeless go when councils slash supporting people funding? (@andrewtmj)

Local Government Management

• Councils like Birmingham have billions of pounds worth of assets yet plead poverty. Should they sell up and invest more in people? (@suttongreenbelt)
• What will he do to assist local SME’s and Co-ops to bid for council contracts against large outsourcing companies? (@lisahoman)
• Is paying minor celebrities to switch on Christmas lights a good use of council funds, rather than spending it on services? (@hughmanbeing76)

Planning

• Given the weakness of the Duty to Co-Operate and the new role of (the Planning Inspectorate) in setting housing targets, do you regret revoking Regional Spatial Strategies? (@samuel_stafford)
• Will he allow councils a period of grace while their local plans are formally examined? (@WestonGrnBelt)
• Why not make developers build the homes they already have permission for before applying to build elsewhere? (@SaveRuralNWarks)

House building and housing markets

• We aren't building enough. Labour's new towns idea accepts the housing crisis in a grown up way. Have you anything so radical? (@HousingPete) & House prices up 0.5%, supply down 0.6%, demand up 10.2%. Is the housing crisis becoming a disaster? (@HousingPete)
• Housing ministers come and go. When will coalition government take housing seriously and address housing needs of older people? (@Girlings)

Housing standards and building regulations

• Why do you listen to SAVE and not to the local residents of the Welsh Streets, who voted unanimously for Demolition Come see them? (@MaryHuxham1; this relates to the dispute over the demolition of houses in the former Housing Market Renewal area in Anfield, Liverpool)
• If the Code for Sustainable Homes is withdrawn, how can local authorities consistently ask for sustainable materials outside of Building Regulations? (@CPA_Tweets)
• Will you provide longer-term empty property rate relief for landlords upgrading energy efficiency? (@theWSBF)

Management of the Department

• For the record, how much did your department spend on biscuits in the last financial year? (@Nicknumber)

Background to #AskPickles session

MPs on the Committee wanted to ensure that their questions reflected pressing concerns in the world of local government and asked people to submit their questions via Twitter between 28 November to 4 December 2013.

During this period, the hashtag #AskPickles appeared in 1600 tweets. The original session had been planned for 9 December but unfortunately Mr Pickles was unwell.

Time restrictions limited the number of subjects that the Committee was able to address and there are therefore many important issues that were not raised with the Secretary of State.

The headings outline the broad areas of questioning covered; the links correspond to the relevant point of the #AskPickles recording. The questions listed are either those that were asked directly to the Secretary of State or examples of the kinds of questions that inspired the Committee’s lines of questioning.

Further information

• Parliament TV: Performance of the Department 2013
• Inquiry: Performance of the Department
• Communities and Local Government Committee