Gordon Brown has singled out the NHS as one of the four “mistakes” of the Blair era.

The Chancellor nominated the Millennium Dome, the 75p pension rise in 1999 – pushed through by him – and the failure to increase the winter fuel allowance as the other errors.

Mr Brown singled out health authorities and hospitals which have run up large debts, and questioned the extent of private provision. He labelled hospitals, particularly those that provide accident and emergency and maternity services, as “essential monopolies” that should be treated quite differently from other activities in the economy. He added that he was not proposing to make the NHS independent, but did want to see maximum local autonomy within the service.

Mr Brown also said that he wanted 100,000 homes in “carbon-neutral” communities to be built on old industrial sites to help to create a “home-owning, asset-owning, wealth-owning democracy”. Each of the new homes in five so-called “eco-towns” would be built to zero-rated carbon standards and be exempt from stamp duty. All their energy supplies will be generated locally from sustainable sources.

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