Michael Howard has said he is angered by the state of public services in Britain.

Delivering a keynote speech on party policy on Tuesday, the Conservative leader said he refused to accept "second best" in areas such as health and education.

"Two years ago I came back into front-line politics because I was angry about the state of healthcare in this country," he said.

"In my constituency in Kent, I saw people growing more and more frustrated with a system that was letting them down."

Howard pointed to lower survival rates for cancer, heart disease and strokes, while one in three children leave primary school unable to read or write properly.

"None of this is right and none of it is necessary," he said.

Control

Howard blamed the government for over-centralising the management of public services.

"Labour's command and control approach to our public services has left hard working teachers, doctors and nurses demoralised and undervalued," he said.

"They have become human instruments of ministerial will. The public sector is now subject to such all embracing central control that it diminishes those who work in it."

The Tory leader said public services should become more personalised and promised a radical agenda to deliver meaningful reforms.

"We must transform the government's role from being a monopoly producer and manager of healthcare and education, to one where it guarantees and funds everyone's right to choose," Howard said.

"We must let parents and patients choose what they believe is best for them and their children. This is a very big change. 

"It means ending the command and control political consensus on public services that has persisted for far too long, but failed to deliver.  

"It means trusting parents and patients to make decisions – not forcing them to take what they are given.

"It means giving real power to real people – not leaving the man in Whitehall to decide what is best."

Health plans

Howard said that a Conservative government would back a patient's right to choose in healthcare.

"The money will follow the patient's choice, rather than the patient being told where he or she has to go," he said.

Vowing to maintain free access to comprehensive healthcare for all, he added that there will also be pressure to deliver greater efficiency.

"The more efficient a healthcare system is, the more operations and treatments we will have and the more healthcare we will get," Howard said.

And politicians will also be taken out of NHS decision-making,

"Once the big changes have been made, the politicians should move aside and let patients choose and the professionals deliver," he said.

Education reforms

The Conservative leader also said his "right to choose" agenda would extend to education via the pupil passports policy.

"We need to swap the instruments of central control and inspection for genuine parental choice and the freedom for head teachers to lead their schools," he said

Howard said that the extension of choice in Swedish schools had led to "a flowering of innovation and educational attainment".

"Ministers now talk about diversity and personalised learning," he added.

"But they doggedly cling to a failed system which denies parents real choice - the only mechanism that can truly raise standards and generate diversity.

"Experience shows that the right to choose leads to more schools, better schools, smaller schools, more diverse schools that cater for all parts of the community and all ranges of ability."

Policy pledge

Howard said that further details of the "right to choose" policies will be unveiled over the weeks ahead.

As the next general election nears, the Conservatives will face pressure to spell out the exact details of their policies and any costs that might be associated with them.

Howard said that a "new approach" would guide his position on reform of the public services.

"Our ambition is to give everyone the kind of choice in health and education that today only people with money can buy," he said.

"We will give parents and patients the right to choose because that is the only way to deliver first class standards in health and education.

"We will invest more to achieve that reform – investment to the tune of an extra £49 billion a year in health and schools.

"And we will trust people, not politicians, to decide what is best for them and their families.

"Politicians will set the framework but people will decide – parents, patients, teachers, doctors and nurses."