ATTACKS on child poverty through welfare and school reforms, as well as urgent measures to require banks to lend, are likely to feature in the queen's speech outlining the UK coalition government's legislative programme, ministers indicated on Thursday at the launch of their sweeping “coalition programme for government”.

George Osborne, the chancellor, said the aim was to end “a whole culture that says 'let's do what we want, rather than what is right'.”

A “huge part” of the queen's speech “will be the big structural reforms to education and welfare that will help the life chances of people” he said.

The school reforms will see a reduced role for local education authorities, the introduction of free schools and a pupil premium for disadvantaged children. Welfare reforms will include tougher conditionality clauses for those on welfare, the introduction of more private-sector employment providers, and immediate testing for availability for work of current incapacity benefit claimants.

But Osborne insisted that he would keep the previous government's target of eliminating child poverty by 2020, saying the Labour government's definition of child poverty had not been opposed by the Conservatives when it was put on the statute book last year. Osborne's pledge came on the day fresh figures showed that another 100,000 children had been lifted out of poverty as defined by the government.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, with his social democratic roots, emphasised the importance of fairness, saying he would not have countenanced the coalition without that principle. “The success of government will not be measured with whether we cut the deficit, but how we cut the deficit,” he said.

The coalition agreement includes a strong attack on vested interests in the public sector, with an attack on police pay structures, an erosion of rigid national pay bargaining for teachers, renegotiation of family doctors' contracts, and greater powers to sack civil servants.

Discussing the programme at a press conference attended by the most senior government officials, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said there had been compromises on both sides of the coalition, but this had strengthened and not weakened the contents. Prime Minister David Cameron said it was remarkable that the joint programme for government, with its strong emphasis on responsibility and individual liberty, had been agreed so quickly.

Among the eye-catching proposals are the restoration of anonymity for rape defendants in England and Wales, a move immediately opposed by many women's groups. The Lib Dems have held this policy since 2006, on the basis that it is unfair if defendants whose guilt has yet to be established are accused of the crime by women seeking some sort of vengeance. The identity of the defendant would be made known if found guilty.

Other pledges include a free vote to end the ban on fox hunting, a pledge to end the closure of accident and emergency wards, the introduction of 12 elected city mayors in England, a complete sentencing review and a special fund to allow all-postal primaries in 200 seats that have been held by one party for many years.

Overall, the agreement includes 400 separate objectives. Despite frantic negotiations, differences between the two parties led to the announcement of 29 reviews, including five commissions. Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs have agreed to differ on how to vote on fox hunting, electoral reform, nuclear power and recognition of marriage in the tax system.

But both Cameron and Clegg insisted they had a genuine synthesis of Conservative and Lib Dem thinking. The foreword claimed that this synthesis represents a merger of both big society and the big citizen. The prime minister admitted the process had not been an effortless fusion “The urgency of the hour required compromise and negotiation ... the more we talked, the more we listened, the more we realised our visions for the country and the values that inspire them are strengthened and enhanced by the two parties coming together.”

He singled out the health service as an area where Conservative principles on competition had merged well with Lib Dem plans for greater accountability by primary care trusts.

— The Guardian, London