An equality law dubbed "socialism in one clause" will be scrapped, Home Secretary Theresa May has confirmed.
The measure was intended to force public authorities to take into account disadvantage and inequalities when making decisions about policies.
But Mrs May, who is also the equalities minister, said in reality it was just another bureaucratic box to be ticked.
Harman's Law, named after the Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman who introduced it under the previous government, could have meant public spending would have been skewed towards certain parts of the country with public services being closed down in some areas to be reopened in others, Mrs May said.
Bin collections and bus routes would have had to be designed "not on the basis of practical need but on this one politically-motivated target".
Mrs May said the previous Labour government "thought they could make people's lives better by simply passing a law saying that they should be better".
"That was as ridiculous as it was simplistic and that is why I am announcing today that we are scrapping the socio-economic duty for good," she said.
