Eric Pickles has done Birmingham City Council one favour. Never again will the authority be criticised for failing to ask staff and council house tenants whether they are gay.
Mr Pickles, the Local Government Secretary, confirmed at the Conservative conference that he planned to scrap rules which forced councils to carry out surveys into people's private lives.
Birmingham was a victim of these rules recently, when the Audit Commission criticised it for failing to ask staff in its housing department - and residents in council housing - what their sexuality was.
