Communities secretary Eric Pickles has today announced a consultation on town hall publicity rules in a further clampdown on ‘town hall Pravdas’.

According to DCLG officials, Mr Pickles is seriously concerned that a ‘rogue number’ of authorities continue to ignore the Coalition’s revised code of recommended practice on local authority publicity by publishing ‘political propaganda’.

Councils including  Greenwich RLBC, Hackney LBC, Haringey LBC, Tower Hamlets LBC, Waltham Forest LBC and Luton BC, have been singled out for their failure to comply with the code by publishing their own periodicals.

In the light of this, today’s consultation seeks views on drawing up new legislation to prevent local authorities publishing their own newspapers, hiring lobbyists and commissioning publicity with a political slant.

Communities secretary Eric Pickles said: ‘Some councils are undermining the free press and wasting taxpayers' money which should be spent carefully on the front line services that make a real difference to quality of life.

‘It should not, under any circumstances, be used to fund political propaganda and Town Hall Pravdas and yet a hardcore minority of councils continue to ignore the rules despite public concern,' Mr Pickles added.

‘The line in the sand is clear, publicity material straying into propaganda clearly crosses that line, and this legislation will stop this disgraceful misuse of public money, which damages local democracy and threatens an independent, free and vibrant local press.’

Ministers also want restrictions covering broadcast media to be applied equally to print advertising. 

Media watchdogs Ofcom recently found Tower Hamlets LBC had breached the Communications Act 2003, the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising and the local authority publicity code of practice in promoting  the interests of Mayor Luftur Rahman through advertising on five Bengali language satellite and cable channels.