Former Conservative Environment Secretary Lord Heseltine today called for Government to roll back the state and return power to local people.

Heseltine, speaking at the 2009 BCSC Conference in Liverpool, called for a `bonfire of controls’ to leave cities and towns to compete for Whitehall cash.

Under a bigger, bolder version of his `City Challenge’ programme from 1990 which saw run down areas compete for cash, Heseltine envisages major conurbations taking greater control of their affairs.

`If you leave this to Whitehall all you will get is formulae and platitudes’ Heseltine, who is credited with the revival of Britain’s inner cities in the 1980s, said.

Asked how he viewed progress in the Thames Gateway, a concept he also conceived, Heseltine said: `The organagram controlling it is a shambles. Everybody is in charge and nobody is offended. It’s a political solution.’

Heseltine also called for directly elected mayors for four year terms to also take on the role of council chief executive, forming a new cadre of highly-paid, dominant civic officials across the UK.