David Cameron has stepped up the political battle over the economy by offering tax breaks worth a total of £5 billion in the next financial year to millions of pensioners and savers.
The Conservative leader said basic rate taxpayers could benefit by as much as £7,200 from his party's plans to end income tax on their savings, while pensioners would gain up to £400 from a £2,000 increase in their allowances.
But Labour said Mr Cameron's plan, funded by restricting the growth of public spending, was "economic madness" and would not benefit the vast majority of ordinary people who can already save up to £3,600 a year in tax-free ISAs.
And TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the Tory proposals would mostly benefit "big banks, the super-rich and tax avoiders" and "add to the dole queues as a result of proposed cuts in public spending".
Mr Cameron said the Government could introduce the changes in its spring Budget, covering the estimated £5 billion cost by cutting back on state spending in 2009/10. The Tory leader said the proposals formed part of the vision for a "good future" for Britain which his party will put forward at the next general election.
Mr Cameron also launched Conservative reports on measures to build the UK's 5% share in the growing market for environmentally-friendly technology, which he said provided "a road map of how Britain can be the world leader in green goods, services and companies".
He said that a Conservative government would do everything possible to ensure that the majority of the population has access to high-speed broadband links within five years, with universal access in a decade.
In a speech on the economy in London, Mr Cameron denounced the Government's response to the downturn as "economically stupid and morally indefensible" because it encouraged debt and undermined saving.
He claimed the measures to encourage saving could be achieved without affecting spending plans for the NHS, schools, defence or international development by restricting other Whitehall departments to a 1% real-terms increase.
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They would encourage the "really big change" required to transform Britain "from a spend, spend, spend society into a save, save, save society", he said.
