Red Box blog: Brown's 'exciting' YouTube initiative

David Cameron attacked Labour for its "spendaholic culture" today and promised that a future Conservative government would embrace the Thatcherite virtue of "good housekeeping".

Three days before the Crewe and Nantwich by-election - opinion polls predict a humiliating defeat for Labour in the seat long held by the veteran MP Gwyneth Dunwoody - the Tory leader said that voters were tired of seeing their taxes rise without seeing any improvement in public services.

“After a decade of reckless spending under Labour, Britain needs good housekeeping from the Conservatives. We need to start living within our means," Mr Cameron said in a keynote speech in Birmingham.

Mr Cameron was careful not to commit his party to tax cuts after the next election, sticking to his well-tried mantra that the Tories would "share the proceeds of growth".

“With the rising cost of living, taxpayers can’t take any more pain indeed they want a government that can give them the prospect of relief. And our economy can’t take any more pain without losing jobs to lower tax competitors," he said.

“So how are we going to square the circle? How are we going to spend more on the essentials without putting taxes up - and over time, creating the space for cutting tax, as we have promised to do?

"Our overall method and aim are clear: we will share the proceeds of economic growth. Sharing the proceeds of economic growth is what living with our means, actually means: not spending everything we have, not borrowing to spend beyond our means, but ensuring that, over time, the economy grows faster than the state, so spending falls as a share of national income and we can reduce taxes and borrowing."

Among the projects picked by Mr Cameron as examples of Labour's "shockingly casual" use of public money, was the "£20 billion wasted on an NHS computer that still isn't working properly". Ironically, that same project was listed by Mr Brown as one of his Government's IT successes in a speech to the Google Zeitgeist conference in Watford.

Mr Cameron also pointed to the £2.3 billion that he said was spent refurbishing the offices of civil servants at the Ministry of Defence and to the fact that, in a single year, nearly £2 billion of tax credits was lost due to fraud and error.

“These are outrageous examples of a spendaholic culture in government a culture that is the public sector equivalent of the reckless, debt-fuelled spending spree that Gordon Brown’s policies have encouraged in the private sector," he added.

"The level of government waste in our country today is evidence of an out-of-touch political elite who have forgotten whose money it is they’re spending. Ministers who get in their offices and think ‘great, now how can I spend lots of money’. People who have become so accepting of government waste that they assume it’s just part of the job and that anyone who objects must be calling for 'cuts'."

Times Recommends

• Times Christmas appeal: Letter from the Editor
• Conferences — what a waste of money
• Schools supremo learns a painful lesson