Local government leaders have promised to take up secretary of state Eric Pickles' offer to ‘be pushy' with the Government over future powers.

Mr Pickles signed off his Local Government Association conference speech in Birmingham last week by urging the sector to demand more powers from Whitehall as he sought to intensify the coalition's localism agenda through initiatives such as City Deals. It followed a speech in which Mr Pickles had praised councils for their positive reaction to tough spending cuts, and reminded delegates that, alongside the grant reductions, the coalition had handed to councils significant new powers – such as the general power of competence and partial retention of future local business rate increases.