County businesses are struggling with complex rules on applying for council contracts, an MP warned.

Conservative Oxford West and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood said local firms tell her it is important to be able to bid for council contracts.

Yet applying for these is “complex”, she told Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, in the Commons, and asked how they could be made simpler.

Mr Pickles said the Government was working with national council leaders “to demystify the complexities” of the EU-run application processes.