The Green Party has pledged several new resources for the sector in its manifesto published today, although it has said the state should provide many of the services that the sector currently offers.

It also promises an increase in the foreign aid budget to 1 per cent of GDP – potentially worth £6bn to the charity sector.

The manifesto attacks the current culture which has seen “care outsourced to charity” and said that “individual charity is no substitute for collective justice”.  

The party manifesto promises that its vision of government would include a coalition “made up of elected politicians determined to govern for the common good, a revitalised local government, a regulated private sector, the third sector and non-profits –and you and me.”

The manifesto pledges support for social enterprise and co-operatives through a co-operative development fund and a £2bn investment in a network of community banks.

It pledges an end to charitable status for independent schools, consistent long-term funding for Rape Crisis charities, and the repeal of the Lobbying Act so that “civil society organisations can campaign properly”.

And it says that while privatisation of the NHS would be stopped, the sector’s role in supporting care would be allowed to continue.

In a blog for Charity Finance Group, its head of policy and public affairs Andrew O’Brien wrote that on public services, the Green Manifesto is “focused on public funding, public provision and democratic accountability. Although there is criticism of private providers, non-for-profits are mentioned positively throughout meaning that charities would be unlikely to be prevented from delivery”.