Councils should crack down on 'excessive' pay packages and put an end to six-figure pay-offs for senior officers, local government minister Eric Pickles has said.

Pickles has written to councils calling for more transparency over pay arrangements. He has also called for more ‘democratic accountability' over senior pay practices such as severance pay-offs. Pickles said: ‘For too long, local government has made severance pay arrangements away from the eyes of those who get left with the bill: the taxpayer.