GORDON BROWN today sets out his prime ministerial vision for Britain by promising to continue Tony Blair’s programme of reform and to create a “home-owning, share-owning democracy”.

The chancellor, who is already being feted this weekend by cabinet colleagues as the inevitable successor to Blair, makes little secret of his ambition to succeed the prime minister with what some MPs will see as an almost Thatcherite statement of his intent.

In a bid to appease middle-class voters who fear that a Brown premiership will mark a return to the bad old days of high taxes and union power, the chancellor deliberately echoes the words of the former Conservative prime minister by promising there will be “no going back” on the radical agenda of the past eight years.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Times to coincide with the start of the Labour party conference in Brighton, Brown for the first time publicly takes up the challenge of assuming Blair’s mantle.

“The programme of reform and modernisation will continue when Tony steps down,” Brown said in the interview during his visit to the IMF in Washington.

In comments that will disappoint leftwingers and the trade unions, he promised to continue Blair’s work: “There’s no going back on reform. In fact, we will renew the Labour government by us becoming, as we have been since 1997, reformers in all areas.”

In contrast to his conference address two years ago when he mocked Blair’s trumpeting of the “boldness” of new Labour, Brown praises the prime minister as “an incredibly successful Labour leader” who has captured “the broad majority of people”. “What I want to do is deepen and broaden our appeal,” said the chancellor.

Rather than painting himself as a hero of the left-wing old guard, Brown says he has always been new Labour. His big idea for the next 10 years is to boost home ownership in Britain from 70% to 75%, higher than in all other major western economies.

He intends to double the number of people who have become new home owners under Labour from one million to two million.

“My vision is to build a home-owning, asset-owning democracy, a Britain of ambition and aspiration, where all and not just the few have the chance to own their own homes, buy shares and build up assets.”

He has borrowed from Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, the idea of “realtime accountability” — giving the public weekly figures on the performance of the police and local services. He also intends to increase his involvement in foreign policy. He has appointed the MP Ed Balls, his former economics adviser, to compile a report on economic development in the Middle East to assist the peace process.

In his pre-budget report in November he will outline plans including:

Relaxing planning laws to make it easier to build homes.

Brown’s smooth passage to No 10 could, however, be hit by a downturn in the economy. In a statement to the IMF yesterday he signalled that growth would be below 2.5%, rather than the 3% to 3.5% he predicted in the March budget. He blamed high oil prices and slow growth in Europe.

Brown will risk disappointing many Labour delegates, hopeful of more left-wing policies from their next leader when he addresses the party conference in Brighton tomorrow. But his prospects of securing the premiership unopposed have been boosted by support from several Blairite ministers, including Tessa Jowell, Charles Clarke and David Miliband.

The conference promises to be difficult for the leadership, with the unions putting down motions on restoring rights to secondary picketing, opposing government plans to raise the pension age of public sector workers and expressing hostility to private sector involvement in the health service.

It is widely assumed by ministers that the prime minister will stand down in 2008. On the eve of the conference Blair has authorised senior ministers to declare the chancellor his anointed successor. But, in return, he has demanded that he should be allowed to go at a time of his choosing and not be rushed.

Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, says in The Observer today: “He will stand down, as he indicated in the election campaign, and everybody knows it will be — barring terrible accidents — Gordon Brown who takes over.

“The prime minister will make his own decision about the exact day it happens, but I think it is unfortunate that there are some people out there who are trying to hasten this process.”

In his keynote speech on Tuesday Blair will stress that he will not back down on controversial public sector reforms and plans to stay until they are implemented.

He risks irritating delegates by defending his plans to offer more choice to parents and patients by creating a marketplace in public services and involve private firms in their delivery. “It’s got nothing to do with some supposed obsession with the private sector. It’s about opening the system up,” he will say.

Aides say he will focus on a simple message about how Labour must remain a “progressive, centre-left party of government”.

He believes that failure to see through public-sector reform will ‘revive the Tory party by default’ according to a senior Downing Street official.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Milk: do we need a dairy godmother?
• DIY: the women doing it for themselves
• First double portrait of Princes unveiled