Lord Heseltine has called for directly-elected mayors with chief executive powers to be rolled out across England as a way of reinvigorating provincial towns and cities.

The chairman of the advisory board for the Regional Growth Fund, which is distributing £1.4 billion to regions hit by public spending cuts, told a conference dinner last night that he had been a pioneer of localism.

Recalling the 1981 riots when he he took time off as environment minister to visit Liverpool and other cities Lord Heseltine said: 'After ten days walking the streets I knew what was wrong. No one was in charge of running that great city. A concept gathered pace in my mind, which we now call localism. I argued we had to recreate the power of provincial England including creating unitary counties. There will be unitary councils. It will happen.'

Speaking at the annual dinner of the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport, Lord Heseltine called for directly elected mayors across England saying that while London mayor Boris Johnson was regularly on television, 'who argues for Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham?'

He added: 'There are people in this room in the £150,000-£200,000 income group while their leaders are on allowances of £30,000. What sort of organisation is it that expects people to work seven days a week taking all the flak and yet earning a quarter of what the guy who does the administration is earning? Put one person in charge - having directly elected chief executives is a major step forward.'

He called for a 'new dawning of opportunities in our provincial cities' adding: 'We need to get rid of the culture that says everything is prescribed in London which is not the model of advanced capitalist economies.'