Every service run by the state other than the most sensitive, such as military operations, would be opened up to some form of market-based competition in a radical vision of public sector reform set out by the CBI’s recently appointed outsourcing czar.

Private provision of public services forms a key plank of the employer group’s recommendations for the pre-Budget report – but Adrian Ringrose, who chairs the body behind the proposals, would like to see future governments go significantly further.