In his speech to the party conference in Manchester yesterday, the shadow health secretary said that the administrative costs of SHAs, PCTs, quangos and the DoH amounts to £4.38bn a year.

In his first year in office, Mr Lansley promised, he would devolve decision making closer to patients, cutting those costs by £1.5bn.

'We will not make the people of this country pay for Labour's debt crisis by undermining their access to quality healthcare,' he said. 'Value within the NHS will mean we can better deliver the values of the NHS.'

Mr Lansley also used the speech to unveil a pledge to reform funding of social care, by introducing a one-off upfront payment of £8,000 at the age of 65.

These would be pooled, in the manner of an insurance premium, to ensure that the elderly do not have to sell their homes to pay for care.

He pledged to 'abolish Labour's political targets', describing it as a 'gross insult to doctors and nurses to say that without targets they would let patients wait and suffer'.

He also pledged to create cancer survival rates as 'good as any in Europe' by 'focusing on results'.

Conference season blog: The optimistic Mr Lansley