Shadow communities secretary Hilary Benn has slammed the Government's approach to local government finance for descending into ‘chaos' – after ministers were forced to concede defeat in long-running attempts to lower the threshold for triggering council tax referendums.

The attack follows the news communities secretary Eric Pickles has been forced to go back on plans to cut limits for launching local tax votes from 2% to 1.5% – in the wake of political manoeuvring at the highest levels of government.