Children from inner-city schools should be bussed out to be educated in the country, a Conservative policy group suggested yesterday.

The measure could help to keep alive good rural schools that might otherwise close because of falling rolls, while giving children from the cities a better education, it claims.

In addition, disadvantaged children could be provided with a £6,000-a-year premium payable to schools that were willing to take on their education. The Tory policy group also calls for the creation of a chief education and skills officer, who would assume a similar role to the Chief Medical Officer.

It was the suggestion that children be bussed from cities to village schools that most caught the attention at yesterday’s announcement by Stephen Dorrell, the former Health Secretary.

Spelling out the advantages of smaller schools, his report raised the possibility of closing inner-city institutions and “transport[ing] the remaining pupils out to smaller suburban or village schools”. At present it is normally rural pupils who have to travel to the city when their schools become too small to be viable. Reversing the flow would cost the same and could provide “significant educational benefit”, according to the report, Restoring Pride in Our Public Services.

Its launch was overshadowed by a warning from Michael Ancram, a former deputy leader of the Conservative Party, that David Cameron was in danger of “trashing our past or appearing ashamed of our history”.

Although Mr Ancram later complained to fellow Tory MPs of “lurid headlines” and paid tribute to David Cameron’s leadership, his pamphlet, Still a Conservative, touched off a fresh round of in-fighting over the direction of the party.

“Claiming somehow to be the ‘heirs of Blair’ in an attempt to recycle and benefit from new Labour’s past political successes risks merely relabelling yesterday’s rubbish,” he wrote.

Discussing the proposals of Mr Cameron’s six policy groups, he said: “However good they are they will not of themselves alter the current public perception of the Conservative Party as lacking an overall sense of vision and direction and a clear projection of what it stands for.”

There was little sign of a groundswell of support for Mr Ancram and he was roundly criticised by Michael Portillo, his rival for the Conservative leadership in 2001.

“Michael Ancram is somebody whose political career is coming to an end. I do not think it is particularly significant but I suppose his career now ends with an incident where probably a lot of people will criticise him for rocking the boat at a very critical time when the Conservative Party may be going into a political campaign,” Mr Portillo said.

Mr Cameron himself left it to Mr Dorrell to reply to Mr Ancram’s critique. “The only way [political parties] can come first in our system is by reaching out beyond your comfort zones,” he said. “When they are reaching out to the centre ground they have some chance of building the coalition which our electoral system demands.”

Yesterday’s launch concludes the Conservatives’ public service reform policy work. Mr Cameron must now select which ideas will be taken up in the party’s manifesto. In addition to those announced for the first time yesterday, the options include handing council tenants state aid equal to 10 per cent of the value of their home to help them to buy a property.

Another possibility is sending to the head of hospital waiting lists patients who give up smoking or lose weight.

Suggested reforms

Main recommendations of the public services improvement policy group report, Restoring Pride in Our Public Services:

— Stripping local education authorities of the power to prevent parents from setting up their own so-called pioneer schools

— Giving head teachers unlimited power to expel disruptive pupils

— Bussing pupils from failing inner-city schools to those in the country. Disadvantaged pupils to be given a £6,000-a-year “premium” to encourage schools to take them

— Sending to the head of hospital waiting lists patients who give up smoking or lose weight. “Health air miles card” could also be used to pay for gym membership

— Requiring all primary care trusts to have their own directors of public health

— Handing to well-behaved council houses tenants a cash sum equal to 10 per cent of the value of their home to help them to get on the property ladder

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