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Tory manifesto proposes Big Society tweaks, but nothing new for charity sector

Governance | Celina Ribeiro | 13 Apr 2010

The Conservatives have emphasised ‘Big Society’ solutions to its recurring complaint about broken society in its manifesto, but offered little new strategies for the voluntary sector.

While today’s manifesto repeated pledges and policies related to civil society that have mostly been heard before, the Tories have given the rhetoric of 'broken society' a new lease of life and proposed countering the trend with a push to 'Big Society' which will necessarily involve voluntary and non-profit organisations.

David Cameron's party would create a ‘Big Society Day’, designed to celebrate and encourage local community action, and replace the Social Investment Bank with a ‘Big Society Bank’, again using money from unclaimed bank assets, which would – much like Labour's Social Investment Wholesale Bank – fund non-government groups and social enterprises.

Some criticism at the policy event came from union Unite, which claimed that the party’s plans to increase efficiencies and productivity in the provision of public service could force charities to compete in a “race to the bottom” for government contracts.

The union expressed concern that the party’s plan to see more charity involvement in public life, at the same time as rolling back public spending, would result in charities being burdened with responsibilities previously the preserve of government.

The manifesto reiterated the already-announced proposal to increase the amount of national income spent on overseas aid to 0.7 per cent by 2012, as the UK has already pledged to do at the United Nations. UK aid spending is expected to come in at 0.52 per cent of national income for 2009. While already announced, Oxfam welcomed the Tories re-pledging of support for the signed-onto target.

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