The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, has this afternoon announced that the Government is to pursue rigorous cost savings and transparency measures to deliver better value for hard-pressed British taxpayers.
This includes:
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A clamp-down on trades union 'pilgrims' - full time, taxpayer funded, union officials in local and central government costing over £250m a year
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Slashing and opening up information on spending via the government procurement card - so abused by Labour when in power
Speaking at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Eric Pickles said:
"If unions want to raise money for Labour - do it in your own time, not on the rates. We're going to call time on this last closed shop."
He also said:
"We are clamping down on the abuse of government credit cards and opening their spending up to public scrutiny.
"Transparency will help councils save billions through better procurement, joint up working, and driving out waste."
Read the full speech here.