David Cameron faces a 'bare-knuckle fight' to privatise services
Unions promised a "bare-knuckle fight" with David Cameron today after he set out wide-ranging plans to reform public services.
The Primer Minister pledged to end the state monopoly over schools, hospitals and council services as part of moves to hand power to the people.
He said government proposals would signal "the decisive end of the old-fashioned, top-down, take-what-you're-given model of public services".
Private companies, voluntary groups and charities will be allowed to bid to provide services in a host of areas, with only national security and the judiciary excluded.
Unions were outraged by the plans, outlined in the Daily Telegraph.
Rail, Maritime and Transport union leader Bob Crow said the Government would "privatise the air we breathe if they thought they could away with it".
He added: "Cameron wants to give his big business supporters the chance to make a profit out of every section of our public services and he will have a bare knuckle fight on his hands as trade unions join with local communities to defend everything from hospitals to fire services."
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber accused Mr Cameron of pursuing a "naked Right-wing agenda" that would take the country back to the most divisive years of the Eighties.
He added: "The Prime Minister has been telling us that the cuts are sadly necessary, not a secret political project to destroy public services.
"Yet today's proposal to privatise everything that moves is exactly the kind of proposal that voters would reject if put to them at an election."
The changes are to be set out in a White Paper within a fortnight.
Providers of services - including roads, parks and adult care - would earn more as their quality improved.
Mr Cameron said the reforms were part of his Big Society agenda to dismantle "Big Government" and added: "The grip of state control will be released and power will be placed in people's hands."
