David Cameron to scrap central targets in power shift

THE Prime Minister will today launch government reforms which he will claim are a historic shift of power from Whitehall to local communities.

David Cameron is due to publish new government business plans that will set out the scrapping of centrally set targets.

Mr Cameron will be joined by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and the head of the civil service Sir Gus O'Donnell as he addresses senior civil servants on the future shape of government which are also meant to increase the government's accountability to the public.

The Prime Minister is expected to say: "Instead of bureaucratic accountability to the government machine, these business plans bring in a new system of democratic accountability - accountability to the people.

"But more importantly the business plans will bring about a power shift by changing what government does. For a long time, government's default position has been to solve problems by hoarding more power to the centre - passing laws, creating regulations, setting up taskforces. The result is that Britain is now one of the most centralised countries in the developed world."

He is also expected to claim that his government will be the "first in a generation" to leave office with much less power in Whitehall than it started with.

"We are going to take power from government and hand it to people, families and communities - and how we will do that is set out right here in these business plans. In one of the biggest blows for people power, we're shining a bright light of transparency on everything government does."

He will also try to dismiss concerns that he is "replacing top-down targets with top-down business plans".

However, with local government, health and education set to see the biggest changes, it is unclear what effect will be seen in Scotland where these services are already devolved.