By Paul Goodman
Follow Paul on Twitter
Harry Phibbs wrote about Eric Pickles's record this morning. CLG spending is counted under two headings – CLG Local Government and CLG Communities.
The former, the larger of the two budgets, has risen by about a £1 billion, and is slightly south of £27 billion. Figures for the latter come in as follows:
2010 – 2011 Outturn: £10,348,900 b
2011 – 2012 Outturn: £5,566,000 b
Pickles has thus cut almost half CLG's non-Local Government spending in his department. He thus tops the league table and scoops this website's golden axe award.
"Unprecedented reductions in spending on public services" – Paul Johnson, Institute of Fiscal Studies.