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Eric Pickles says there should be no need for councils to cut their frontline services

While councils across the East of England mutter darkly about having to cut essential services, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government can't understand what all the fuss is about.

"Yes, there will be cuts but it will all be within parameters which are sustainable and well within the capabilites of local authorities," says , who is also MP for Brentwood and Ongar.

"I believe we should be able to protect frontline services."

Instead, Mr Pickles believes it's the councils which are the villains of the peace, guilty of wasteful overspending on bureaucracy.

"We are saying to local authorities 'Look, it's the frontline that matters' and the days when you could feather your own nests, the days when you could put together excessive pay packages for your chief officers and senior staff are gone."

He admits the spending settlement he's announced is tough but believes councils can cope.

"We want people to start to merge their back office services. There is no necessity to have your own legal department, no necessity to have separate accounts departments or separate wage bills or separate planning departments. These are all support services - if they merge them, they will save many millions of pounds.

"My advice to the electorate is to ask your local council:

• Do they have their own chief excecutive?
• What services are they sharing with others?
• How are they improving their procurement?

"All these things have to be done before you start dealing with front line services."

He also disputes the claim that thousands of council jobs will be lost over the next few years.

"They don't have to (cut frontline services) and they will have to face the consequences from the electorate should they do that."

Mr Pickles clearly has highly-paid council chief executives in his sights. At the Tory Conference in October he lambasted them saying anyone earning more than the Prime Minister should be taking a pay cut of 5-10%.

did. Her opposite number in Suffolk, , didn't and neither did in Norfolk. Mr Pickles is not impressed.

"I'm sure they're charming people but at a time when services are being reduced, I don't think if I were those chief executives I could look my workers in the eye."

Councillors struggling to balance their budgets may well be outraged by Mr Pickles' views.

But the Secretary of State believes it is possible to take millions of pounds away from our local authorities and for them to still to be able to provide good frontline services.

The next few months will prove whether he is right.

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