Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Monday a 16-billion-pound sale of state assets including a high-speed railway and a betting service to cut soaring debt caused by the economic crisis.

 

Conservative Treasury spokesman Philip Hammond called on Brown's government to start taking "tough decisions."

The 16-billion-pound figure was equivalent to only a weeks' worth of borrowing at current levels, he said, adding: "Selling the family silver will not solve the crisis in public finances".