Brown's £10bn schools pledge

Gordon Brown will promise to create a "world class" education system as he announces plans today for Britain to spend more on education than other countries in the developed world.

The Chancellor will raise the education budget by more than £10bn a year when he unveils the Government's three-year spending blueprint in the Commons. The share of national wealth devoted to education will rise from 5.3 per cent to almost 6 per cent over the next three years.

This means the UK will spend more than the average in the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Only Singapore among the developed countries will increase education spending by as much as the UK.

Mr Brown's "tough and tender" package ­ which will take overall public spending levels to more than £500bn by 2006 ­ will include a crackdown on poorly performing public services to make sure the extra billions are well spent.

To ensure that "money is matched by reform", managers of inefficient housing and social services departments and further education colleges will be sacked and their institutions could be taken over by successful departments and colleges, the Chancellor will say. But good managers will be rewarded with higher pay.

A new independent audit system will be set up to monitor social care and housing run by councils and housing associations, where the Treasury believes controls are lax. The Treasury will also put pressure on Whitehall departments to deliver value-for-money by publishing quarterly progress reports on whether they are hitting their performance targets.

Mr Brown will tell MPs that the Government has every right to demand reform in return for the investment in public services.