Cameron pushes on with 'Big Society'

Monday, July 19, 2010

Although many thought it was a dead duck after the general election, the Prime Minister David Cameron is determined to push through his concept of the 'Big Society'.

While some have criticised it as a way of getting public services on the cheap, Cameron has explained the concept in more detail, including his proposals for giving charities access to civil servants and handing over money in dormant bank accounts to charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to pay for various community projects and fund public services.

Promising to "turn government on its head", the PM said in a speech in Liverpool: "It's time for something different, something bold – something that doesn't just pour money down the throat of wasteful, top-down government schemes. The Big Society is that something different and bold.

"It's about saying if we want real change for the long-term, we need people to come together and work together – because we're all in this together."

Cameron also announced the creation of a Big Society Bank which will be financed using dormant bank and building society account money.

"These unclaimed assets, alongside the private sector investment that we will leverage, will mean that the Big Society Bank will – over time – make available hundreds of millions of pounds of new finance to some of our most dynamic social organisations."

Liverpool is one of the areas that will become the great training grounds where the Big Society will be built with the help of officials from the Department of Communities and Local Government. The others are Eden Valley, Cumbria; Windsor and Maidenhead; and the London borough of Sutton.

Ideas include out pubs, using volunteers to keep museums open and giving the public more say over council spending. Cameron also said that people might run their own transport services and libraries.

You can read the full speech here

However, the Unite union said the 'Big Society' idea was just smoke and mirrors for an avalanche of privatisation under the Tories.

Rachael Maskell, national officer, community and not for profit sector, said: "David Cameron's 'Big Society' is an intellectually flawed creed that harks back to a vision of 1950s Britain that never existed. We have been down this road before when John Major had a similar pipe dream of an idyllic Britain of 60 years ago,

"There is a hypocrisy here. The voluntary sector is being hit by massive cuts to its funding – for example, Croydon council has slashed 70 per cent of its voluntary sector budget. And the coalition's rampant drive for greater competition – heralded by the NHS White Paper last week – will drive down costs even more, especially as the 'Big Society' welcomes private sector interventions. This will mean that quality is compromised for cheapness. This culture either destroys services in organisations willing to compromise or stops them winning bids."

Peter Holbrook, CEO of the Social Enterprise Coalition, said that the Big Society Bank had the potential to help build an economy that was transparent, accountable and embedded with values that reflect the needs of people and the planet.

"A thriving social enterprise sector would get us closer to that kind of economy," he said, "and an independent wholesale institution could play a key role in developing the social investment market that underpins it. However, in order to be effective, the Bank should be structured and run in such a way that it works with existing intermediaries and does not cause market distortion or displacement, and must be managed independently of government with the ability to operate commercially and distribute funds swiftly and efficiently. The government has said that it will use 'every penny' of dormant bank accounts to finance the Bank. We want to ensure that this results in the greatest social and environmental benefits possible."