ministers should be able to hand-pick chief executives to run their departments in a departure from the tradition of civil service impartiality, according to a left-of-centre think-tank.

The independence of the civil service has created an institutional culture that is resistant to change, hampering attempts to push through modernisation of public services, argued the report from Demos.

The cult of the ''gifted generalist'', recruited from university to a job for life, means specialist and professional managerial skills are undervalued in departments with billion-pound budgets, it claimed.

Ed Straw, the report's author, said the relationship between minister and department head should be similar to that of the chairman and chief executive in a private company.

''Imagine becoming chief executive of a large organisation and being told the entire management are 'independent', that you have no control over recruitment, promotion and pay, and senior staff operate as a separate organisation with a mind of its own,'' he said.