'Almost £2bn in NHS red tape can be cut'

Almost £2billion of NHS "waste" can be axed without losing a single penny for treating patients, the Tories claim today.

In a pre-emptive strike before the Chancellor's looming spending review, they claimed t he amount was being frittered on red tape.

They promised to abolish three layers of health service bureaucracy if they won power and to plough the savings back into extra services for patients.

The claim, based on a study by David James, the troubleshooter who sorted out the Millennium Dome finances, sets the scene for the key battle of the next election in which Tories will argue that much of Labour's spending boosts for public services have been wasted.

The James Report called for the scrapping of powers for Primary Care Trusts to commission surgery, the abolition of Strategic Health Authorities and a squeeze on the number of civil servants at the Department of Health.

Shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin said Mr James's figures would be extensively tested before the election but claimed they showed Mr Brown had let red tape run out of control.

"We need to cut away layer after layer of unnecessary government activity, and layer after layer of unnecessary bureaucracy," said Mr Letwin.

Tory aides insisted the £1.75billion savings would not be used for tax cuts but would be spent on top of the party's promised £34billion extra for the NHS over four years.

Gordon Brown is set to announce billions in funds for public services next week. But Conservatives aim to persuade voters that higher taxes are failing to produce improvements.