New DCLG Minister

12th May 2010

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SECRETARY - ERIC PICKLES

 

 
Eric Pickles was first elected to the Commons in 1992, representing an Essex seat far from his Yorkshire roots. He has extensive local government experience, having led Bradford District Council for three years up to 1991. He has also served in a variety of shadow ministerial roles, including transport, local government and social security spokesman, earning a reputation for loyalty and good humour.

 

He boosted his reputation and profile in the party by masterminding its landmark victory over Labour in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election and was appointed party chairman in 2009. And he became a regular and confident media performer in the months leading up to the 2010 general election. Until January 2009 he was shadow communities secretary, has been MP for Brentwood and Ongar since 1992.

As shadow communities secretary, Pickles pledged that a Conservative government would remove ring-fenced grants, allowing local authorities to identify their own spending aims, and said that the Tories would abolish regional spatial strategies. He also said that city-regional mayors and cross-boundary partnerships would form a key part of the Conservative Party's local government agenda.In addition he has promised a "bonfire of the quangos" and said that England's regional development agencies would not have a "rosy future" under the Tories. He also spoke out against local government reorganisation, saying: "I'll have a pearl-handled revolver waiting in my drawer for the first civil servant who suggests another local government reorganisation."

 

 

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