By Lucy Phillips
14 January 2010
The Conservative Party will not reveal its immediate strategy for cutting the public deficit before the general election, the chair of its policy review has admitted.
Speaking at the Institute for Government on January 11, Oliver Letwin said that outlining cuts to fix the UK’s £178bn black hole while in opposition would be detrimental to the chances of being elected. He said no government would be ‘spared from the need for early action to reduce the fiscal deficit’ and the likelihood was ‘we shall do so not without difficulty, some pain and difficult decisions’.
Letwin was speaking about Tory plans for the reform of public services, which will be based on ‘decentralisation, transparency and accountability’. He said structural changes to state-funded services – such as giving more powers to local government – was ‘good housekeeping’, and said the party had ‘a parallel programme for taking out costs’ in the short term.
He had earlier described the country’s deficit as ‘a national crisis that we need to address’, blaming the ‘grotesque ineptitude of the prime minister and the worst chancellor since chancellors were invented’.
If elected, the Tories would begin reforming public services straight away, but it would take years for the benefits to be realised, Letwin said. ‘We don’t imagine that the good it will do will be delivered immediately. They will only reach their full potential when the culture in public services is changed to a structure of accountability,’ he added.
Letwin pledged not to reduce the quality of public services, saying reform would involve ‘finding ways to deliver more for less’. Proposals include creating a system of competition in hospitals and schools so that patients and parents are given more choice, and introducing ‘payment by results’ to incentivise voluntary and private sector organisations to help unemployed people into work and stop prisoners reoffending.
He promised new legislation to shift the balance of power from central to local government, which he said would be ‘politically embarrassing to undo’. A power of general competence would give councils ‘freedom to act in the best interest of voters’, he added.
14 January 2010
The Conservative Party will not reveal its immediate strategy for cutting the public deficit before the general election, the chair of its policy review has admitted.
Speaking at the Institute for Government on January 11, Oliver Letwin said that outlining cuts to fix the UK’s £178bn black hole while in opposition would be detrimental to the chances of being elected. He said no government would be ‘spared from the need for early action to reduce the fiscal deficit’ and the likelihood was ‘we shall do so not without difficulty, some pain and difficult decisions’.
Letwin was speaking about Tory plans for the reform of public services, which will be based on ‘decentralisation, transparency and accountability’. He said structural changes to state-funded services – such as giving more powers to local government – was ‘good housekeeping’, and said the party had ‘a parallel programme for taking out costs’ in the short term.
He had earlier described the country’s deficit as ‘a national crisis that we need to address’, blaming the ‘grotesque ineptitude of the prime minister and the worst chancellor since chancellors were invented’.
If elected, the Tories would begin reforming public services straight away, but it would take years for the benefits to be realised, Letwin said. ‘We don’t imagine that the good it will do will be delivered immediately. They will only reach their full potential when the culture in public services is changed to a structure of accountability,’ he added.
Letwin pledged not to reduce the quality of public services, saying reform would involve ‘finding ways to deliver more for less’. Proposals include creating a system of competition in hospitals and schools so that patients and parents are given more choice, and introducing ‘payment by results’ to incentivise voluntary and private sector organisations to help unemployed people into work and stop prisoners reoffending.
He promised new legislation to shift the balance of power from central to local government, which he said would be ‘politically embarrassing to undo’. A power of general competence would give councils ‘freedom to act in the best interest of voters’, he added.
