Five years ago this week The MJ's front page coverage of the first Local Government Association (LGA) conference after the General Election was headlined ‘Pickles stokes tensions with jibe at "non jobs".'

Starting as he meant to go on, Mr Pickles chose his first LGA conference as communities secretary to condemn ‘non jobs' such as ‘cheer-leading coordinators and waste service communication officers' (sic) and propose that chief executive roles be scrapped.