ONE of the biggest gripes for many individuals and businesses in times of economic difficulty is the waste they think goes on in the public sector.

The widespread perception at the moment is that while the private sector is going through the blender, there is plenty of fat still left in local government and central government.

The Communities Secretary Eric Pickles is constantly banging on about how local councils in particular can do plenty more to make efficiencies and cut bureaucracy, rather than slash frontline services, though unsurprisingly, few council leaders agree with his assessment, which is in large part based on trying to shift the blame for the cuts down the line to town halls.

Mr Pickles might want to spend a few minutes looking round the cabinet table next week and dishing out a lecture to some of his own colleagues.

Waste in central government is a far bigger problem, not least in the MoD and the NHS. As we reveal today, an unused health centre, familiar to anyone in Christchurch, has been empty since 1989 and has cost the taxpayer not far short of half a million pounds in that time.

That’s an obscene amount of money and is just the tip of an iceberg in the NHS at a time when the service is crying out for cash. A council leader told me yesterday he reckoned he could do a better job in cutting waste in Whitehall. Frankly he couldn’t do any worse.