18 November 2005
The new permanent secretary at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister received a rough ride at his debut in front of MPs this week when they pushed him to justify capping councils for excessive council tax increases.
Appearing before the Commons ODPM select committee on November 14, Peter Housden said he was 'not in a position to comment' on whether an arbitrary percentage figure was a flawed premise for capping authorities, but added that all decisions were taken on a case by case basis.
Conservative committee member Sir Paul Beresford, who put the capping question to Housden, was also unimpressed with the permanent secretary's assertion that local government was operating under a much less restrictive regime than in 2001, when Housden himself was last working in the sector.
'Everyone I talk to in local government tells me the opposite,' Beresford said.
Housden, a former chief executive of Nottinghamshire County Council, moved to the ODPM at the beginning of October. He had previously served as director general for schools at the Department for Education and Skills.
He was also asked how he planned to boost staff morale, which, according to an ODPM staff survey, had been dented by the planned efficiency reductions and uncertainty surrounding the future of the department itself.
'These are real concerns,' Housden told the committee. 'We're looking at the whole range of our human resources policies.'
He added that he was trying to secure a culture change in the department and move more women, people with disabilities and black and ethnic minority staff into senior grades.
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