Prospect has blamed worsening levels of staff engagement at the Department for Communities and Local Government on negative comments about civil servants made by communities secretary Eric Pickles and local government minister Bob Neill.

This followed an employee survey, compiled at the end of 2010 and published by Civil Service World magazine (online story available to subscribers).

It showed a marked reduction in satisfaction levels at DCLG since last year and lower levels of engagement when compared to the average across the civil service.

Saying staff were "demotivated and undervalued," the survey found just 31% of employees agreed they were "proud when I tell others I am part of CLG."

The result is 24 percentage points below the civil service average and shows a seven point fall since DCLG's 2009 survey.

The story was picked up by Local Government Chronicle, (online LGC story available to subscribers) who quoted Prospect negotiator Julie Flanagan. She said: "Since the change of government, members of staff feel very demotivated and undervalued. Some of the public statements by Eric Pickles and Bob Neill about civil servants have been very negative and obviously that has an impact on how they feel about themselves and about the job they do."

Only 23% of employees said they had confidence in decisions made by DCLG's senior civil service, 12 points below the civil service average.

A DCLG spokesman said engagement had dropped across the civil service in the past year. He added: "The survey was launched after it had been made clear to staff the department would need to reduce in size by up to 40%, but before the clarity provided by the final spending review settlement.

"The survey findings will inform the change programme which is already underway. We want to emerge as a Department that is not just smaller but stronger."

Flanagan argued that the decisions worrying staff, such as that to deliver the 33% budget cut before October 2012 instead of spreading it over four years, had come from ministers. "This is being led from the top, at secretary of state level," she said.