Howard promises cull of quangos

Thursday, 13 January 2005 12:00 AM

Michael Howard has said that the Conservatives would abolish 168 quangos at a saving of £4.3 billion.

The announcement is the latest stage in the party's attempt to show that it could cut spending on government, without compromising on services.

Though billed as an economic speech, Mr Howard issued a general election bid, saying that only the Conservatives could be trusted to ensure taypayers had value for money in the public services.

Tony Blair today also made a keynote speech on Labour's election priorities.

In the Conservative's sights are bodies like the Office of Fair Access - which would be scrapped - and the Met Office which would have its functions taken over by the private sector.

Announcing the plans, Mr Howard said that under Labour the "forgotten majority are paying the price of bureaucratic Britain."

"Bureaucratic Britain is undermining the values that matter - the values of the forgotten majority, men and women who wear their self reliance as a badge of honour, who want choice and opportunity for their families, who accept their responsibility to the less fortunate, who save for their retirement, who are proud of their hard work."

He called for a change of direction with "a government that gets a grip on spending, gives taxpayers value for money and halts the rise in taxes."

And he said the Conservatives would decentralise government and give more power to the frontline.

Mr Howard promised though that the cuts would not affect the standard of "priority areas" of education and health.

John Redwood added: "Under a Conservative government, taxpayers' money will go on more police, cleaner hospitals, better schools and controlled immigration - creating scope for lower taxes. Accountability will be our watchword, with elected representatives in charge - not unelected quangos."

But, the Liberal Democrats said that the proposals revealed that the Conservatives were really about privatisation and the cutting of services.

Local government spokesman Ed Davey, said: "This quango review is not about reducing waste and returning power to elected representatives, the agenda is clearly about privatisations and cutting services.

"The Liberal Democrats believe in cutting quangos, but not at the expense of small business, the unemployed and the security of the nation. The Tories plan to abolish job centres, end government investment in small businesses and privatise huge parts of our national defence."

He added: "The idea that this would give power to elected representatives is absurd. Only three quangos are being returned to ministerial control. The rest are being privatised or merged, leaving even less power in the hands of elected people."

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) claimed that the proposed cuts were "naive and dangerous".

General secretary Mark Serwotka PCS said: "Michael Howard says the Tories should be trusted to run public services such as health and education yet today's proposals show that their true agenda is about the slash and burn and backdoor privatisation of key government services. And in proposing moving the Met Office to the private sector even the Michael Fish's of the future would be privatised under the Tory plans."

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