Savings in local government

Pickles offers savings advice

Eric Pickles, the head of the DCLG, is interviewed in the Daily Telegraph. Mr Pickles discusses how he reduced his department’s headcount by more than 44% thus achieving savings £566m over the course of this parliament. He moves onto to explain what Whitehall and the wider public sector could learn from the efficiencies he's found in his department and in local government. Mr Pickles says that local authorities could curb spending by cutting down on the hiring of translatorsand interpreters to assist residents who cannot speak English. "It's a complete waste of money and sends out all the wrong messages. It's a badge of honour to some authorities to say the number of documents they are translating into different languages. All we are doing by that is creating a culture of isolation," he comments.