The Conservative Party has today released its manifesto for the community and charity sector, which pledges new funding to expand the social enterprise sector, voluntary sector grants to bring together communities and a "Big Society Bank" to invest in civil society.

In a speech at a Tory conference, Tory leader David Cameron announced his "Big Society" plan to mend what the Conservatives have dubbed "broken Britain".

"It is a guiding philosophy," Cameron said, "a society where the leading force for progress is social responsibility, not state control.

"It includes a whole set of unifying approaches – breaking state monopolies, allowing charities, social enterprises and companies to provide public services, devolving power down to neighbourhoods, making government more accountable."

The new policies announced as part of the Big Society plan include:

• "Neighbourhood army" of 5,000 full-time, professional community organisers who will be trained with the skills needed to identify local community leaders, bring communities together, help people start their own neighbourhood groups, and give communities the help they need to take control and tackle their problems. This plan is directly based on the successful community organising movement established by Saul Alinsky in the United States and has successfully trained generations of community organisers, including President Obama.

• A "Big Society Bank", funded from unclaimed bank assets, which will leverage private sector investment to provide hundreds of millions of pounds of new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other non-governmental bodies.

• Neighbourhood grants for the UK’s poorest areas to encourage people to come together to form neighbourhood groups and support social enterprises and charities in these poorest areas.

• Transforming the civil service into a "civic service" by making regular community service a key element in civil servant staff appraisals.

• Launching an annual national "Big Society Day" to celebrate the work of neighbourhood groups and encourage more people to take part in social action projects.

• Providing new funding to support the next generation of social entrepreneurs, and helping successful social enterprises to expand and succeed.

Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo said: "We welcome the Conservatives’ manifesto on the Big Society and their plans to empower communities. Should they be in government come May we hope they will work closely with us to make this a reality.
 
"In particular we welcome their commitment to transforming our public services by opening them up to third sector providers, and their promise to use unclaimed assets to make this possible through the creation of a Social Investment Bank."

Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said: "We welcome the Conservatives’ intention to galvanise neighbourhood renewal and social action and their commitment that charities and voluntary groups will play a leading role in achieving this.

"We are pleased that they have endorsed several of the key commitments in NCVO’s manifesto.

"We are delighted they have reiterated their support for a Social Investment Wholesale Bank, or an independent Big Society Bank as they call it. It will be vital in generating finance for voluntary and community groups in delivering their services.

"Finally, we are pleased they will establish an annual Big Society Day, which we hope will be a bank holiday, to celebrate the work of community groups, as well as making volunteering part of the culture of the civil service. We hope they will give all employees the right to five days paid time off for volunteering.

"If the Conservatives are elected, we look forward to helping them realise their vision."