Government plans to grant more power to local communities were exposed by unions today as a sham to disguise huge job cuts and the privatisation of public services.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles unveiled the Localism Bill which he claimed would be a "ground-breaking shift in power to councils and communities" from central government and would start a new era of "people power."
He described the Bill as a way of empowering communities where local people would be encouraged to compete against private firms to bid to run services.
"This powerful series of measures puts new rights in law for people to protect, improve and even run important front-line services," he claimed.
"For too long people have been powerless to intervene as vital community resources disappear."
Mr Pickles added: "I am expecting councils to provide more for less and a reasonable level of service."
But the Unison union's head of local government Heather Wakefield said the huge job losses faced by councils meant Mr Pickles's claims were simply not possible.
The Local Government Association predicted last month that 140,000 council jobs will go over the next four years as the cuts announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review begin to bite.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting also predicted that 70,000 of those could come go in the next year alone.
"Eric Pickles may talk about local authorities doing more with less but the public should not be fooled - this is not possible," Ms Wakefield said.
She labelled the day "Miserable Monday" for workers and councils across the country and delivered a litany of the services at risk from the Tory axe.
"Vital local services such as libraries and day centres are already shutting their doors.
"Charges for others such as home care for the elderly and meals on wheels are on the up," Ms Wakefield said.
"Meanwhile, the bankers are still in line for their massive Christmas bonuses. Why are hard-working families paying the price for a recession they did not cause?"
London School of Economics Professor Tony Travers said: "There's no doubt that it will be unlike anything that has been seen before in modern times.
"The scale of reduction in grants, which will be 27 per cent over four years, is without precedent and it's very hard for local authorities to do that without any effect for front-line service."
The Bill will also introduce a "community right to build," giving towns and villages powers to build new homes and amenities.
The National Housing Federation has calculated that councils in the north will lose £104 million a year while those in the south will gain £342m when the scheme is fully operational.
