Pickles: 'Labour Would Have Made Bigger Cuts to Housing'

Eric Pickles has welcomed the coalition's "Budget for growth", hailing plans to improve the planning system and cut red tape for councils and businesses. Opening the third day of Commons debate on the Budget, Mr Pickles said: "It is a Budget for a strong and stable economy, making our progress towards eliminating the structural deficit. It is a Budget for growth - rebalancing the economy away from over-reliance on the public sector towards long-term sustainable growth based on export and investments. Mr Pickles warned that the Labour government had been planning spending cuts of "£44 billion by 2015", which were to be "frontloaded with £14 billion falling this April". Labour's spending plans would have made "bigger cuts to housing, regeneration and local government", he said. The Budget set out plans to unblock the planning system, boost house-building and put local councils and communities in the lead on delivering growth, he told MPs. Read more details of the Budget plans on the CLG website.