Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has promised to oversee an irreversible shift in power from Whitehall to local communities.

He told the Local Government Association conference in Birmingham that there had never been better time to be a local councillor.

Promising to abolish unnecessary Government controls, Mr Pickles said he would set local authorities free and give them new powers to raise money through reform of business rates and tax incremental funding schemes.

Declaring that England is one of the world’s most centralised states, he pledged to give new responsibilities and powers to town halls.

Mr Pickles forecast a “new wave of municipal activism”, but councils had to be prepared to seize the opportunities coming their way.

Allowing councils to keep money collected from the business rates would put paid to the days when cities had to plead for cash from the “Whitehall begging bowl”.

He hit out at an “insidious accumulation” of statutory duties imposed on councils by the Government. Many are in the process of being abolished.

Mr Pickles said: “We want to strip away needless red tape and let councils get on with what matters. We want to strengthen the role of individual councillors.”

He confirmed plans to force council meetings to approve in public six-figure salary payments to chief officers and to “justify the decision to the press and public”.