Communities secretary Eric Pickles looks set to push through a 1.5% threshold for triggering council tax referendums, it has emerged.

Disclosures earlier this year revealed that a spat between the Home Secretary Theresa May and the DCLG over plans to trim the current 2% level led to ministers delaying an announcement on the figure – which was to have been published last December at the time of the local government finance settlement.

But according to the reports in today's Financial Times, Mr Pickles is due to announce the lower 1.5% figure next week despite last-minute attempts by Liberal Democrat Coalition partners to block the cut.

A senior Liberal Democrat MP quoted anonymously in reports said: ‘We are keen that localism actually means that: local councillors making decisions on how to deliver services in their community.'

A final decision on the council tax referendum limit is scheduled to be agreed at next week's meeting of the Quad – which consists of prime minster David Cameron, chancellor George Osborne and their Liberal Democrat counterparts deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander.

A Government source confirmed to The MJ that today's report ‘nails it for accuracy'.