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Yesterday, we announced radical new plans to give public sector workers the opportunity to take over the services they deliver from the state.

This will give them the power to shake off all the top-down meddling and interference that Labour have introduced over their years in power and genuinely become their own boss.

What it means is that employees throughout the vast majority of the public sector – including JobCentre Plus offices, community nursing teams and primary schools, will be able to form their own social enterprises and be contracted by the government for the services they deliver, rather than be run under the managerial control of the state.

Employee owned co-operatives will be able to decide on management structures, innovate to cut costs and improve the quality of service, and share any financial surpluses amongst the staff. And these will be not-for-profit organisations – so any financial surpluses they make will be reinvested into the service and the staff who work there.

The plans will not only help tackle the low morale and powerlessness so many public sector employees feel today, it will actually be a great catalyst for public service improvement. The evidence from the private and voluntary sectors is clear: employee-owned organisations are more productive, more efficient, and have better employee engagement because staff have a much more direct interest in the organisation’s success.

We believe this is the most significant shift in power from the state to working people since the sale of council houses in the 1980s, which gave millions of people across Britain greater freedom, security and control over their lives.