Shadow communities secretary Hilary Benn has taunted Eric Pickles for being proclaimed as ‘the model of lean Government', days before a damning report into his department's finances was published.

The communities secretary was praised by chancellor George Osborne last week in the Spending Review on 26 June, but 48 hours later the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report stating the Department for Communities and Local Government spent £29,097m in 2012/13, against a limit of £28,972m – meaning the department ended up £217m overdrawn.