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Page last updated at 08:37 GMT, Monday, 13 December 2010

Pickles: Councils 'can manage' cuts

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The government is set to announce how much funding local councils will lose as well as publishing its plans for giving people more powers to run local services in England.

Explaining the shift in powers and funding, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles told the programme that he had taken advice from the Local Government Association on the cuts councils could manage, and the reduction would be within these bounds for most councils.

"I am expecting local councils to provide more for less," he said.

He stressed the political implications of the shift, saying that "big government", and not just banking, was to blame for the economic problems in Europe, and that the UK is "a very centralised country".

"This is about a new constitutional arrangement," he explained. "It's about shifting power down to locality. With new power comes responsibility."


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