Policy Announcements, Wednesday 20 June

**Government  **

• £65 million will be made available to the Pathfinders that were launched today by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions John Hutton as part of the City Strategy, which gives local areas more power to tackle worklessness. Speaking in Bimingham today, Mr John Hutton said that the Pathfinders had now agreed business plans and targets to reduce the number of people on benefits in their area and in return they would be supported by money from the Deprived Areas fund which will be worth £65 million over the next two years as well having access to further money upon examples of local success and innovation.  

Conservatives  

• The Tories have pledged to hand day-to-day control of the NHS in England to an independent board, part of efforts to make it more autonomous. Members would be chosen by the health secretary and would be accountable to ministers, the party says. They would commission services while centralised targets, such as those on waiting lists, would be abolished. Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has ruled out a similar plan, saying the NHS was too vast to be run by a board. The proposals set out on Wednesday form the party's first detailed and concrete policy pledge on public services.