Royal Mail plans to be shelved?
Updated on 29 June 2009
Plans for the part-privatisation of the Royal Mail look set to be squeezed out of the government's programme before the general election.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has conceded the likely postponement of the plans in a newspaper article on the day the prime minister is launching what is being termed a "national plan" for spending priorities in the coming years.
But the Conservative leader, David Cameron, has rejected the plans as another indication of a "thread of dishonesty" running through Gordon Brown's premiership.
The prime minister will this afternoon lay out his government's plans for the coming months, with a new emphasis on and more about a new way of achieving them.
The document, named Building Britain's Future, is expected to address perceived shortcomings across the public sector.
In health, it is anticipated there will be an entitlement to routine checks for the over 40-year-olds. Cancer patients will be entitled to specialist access within two weeks. And there will be a maximum 18-week waiting time from a GP appointment to hospital access.
Schoolchildren will be entitled to one-to-one personal tutition in early secondary education.
There will also be a new system for allocating council housing, known as 'local housing for local people', which will prioritise people's attachment to an area as well as their absolute needs
Speaking to Channel 4 News, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson spoke about the difference between previous targets and the new entitlements.
"It's really important that you're not only giving people entitlements, but that you are saying to those who are responsible for providing that service that the entitlement is going to be enforced."
