None of us in public life enjoy cutting public spending. It would be wonderful to have more money available to sponsor your pet schemes, to do good to those in need, to improve our local area.

Today we have to recognise that the public sector is simply taking too much. It is taxing too much and borrowing too much. Now it is also printing too much. If we go on like this there will be another crisis. This time the pound will sink too far, making us all poorer. Interest rates will be forced up, making many poorer again.

Even the government recognises that at some point the printing has to stop and the borrowing has to come down. The irony is the government has been busily lecturing the banks and the private sector for spending and borrowing too much, only to go on doing exactly the same itself.

The important thing in the next couple of years will be to hold on to what matters most whilst bringing the books into better balance. I will want to see money spent on good teachers, nurses, doctors and sensible management of our core public services locally. I want an end to regional government, to the regional development Agency, to the regime of Best value and Comprehensive Performance Assessment affecting Councils. I can live with far fewer glossy brochures, traffic mismanagement schemes, partnerships and officials with jargon filled titles.

There is some good news out there. If the public sector copied the best of the private, or even copied the best of the public, cost would fall and quality rise at the same time. Private health providers told me last week that they could provide operations for the NHS one fifth cheaper than the NHS hospitals manage. Under Labour’s arrangements the local NHS can use private providers to deliver service free to the patient. There is considerable scope to cut the costs of government, starting with Parliament where there are too many MPs and their offices are often very expensive.

We need Councillors, quango boards, public sector Chief Executives to all follow the same mantra. It is time to do more for less. It is time to do things better and smarter. When I was leading a manufacturing company management team each year our customers expected a 2-4% reduction in prices. They also expected better quality and prompt delivery. We did it, because if we didn’t the Chinese would. It is difficult but not impossible. That’s what we now have to do throughout the public sector, so we keep what we value, and charge what the country can afford. If we go on as we are we end up with national bankruptcy.