One of the major barriers to building a healthy and thriving civil society is the almost complete withdrawal from community activity of the “natural elite” such as solicitors and City bankers, Lord Phillips of Sudbury said yesterday.

Lord Phillips was speaking from the audience at the Civil Society Question Time debate on two years of the coalition government, and was responding to a question from another delegate, Alex Whinnom, chief executive of Greater Manchester CVO. Whinnom had asked what kind of civil society needs to be developed to drive social and economic inclusion and meet future needs.

Lord Phillips said the biggest challenge was how to revive community life given “the virtual withdrawal from leadership in communities of what one might call the natural elite”.

He said that when he started out as a solicitor, lawyers were often pillars of their local community. But today, “most them are far too busy and pressured in their jobs and few are heavily engaged”, he said.

“You won’t find that one in ten of the nabobs in the City has any involvement in public life at all and I think that is a huge drawback in terms of civic vitality.”

But his comments did not find much favour with some members of the audience, or indeed the panel.  Gareth Thomas MP, shadow minister for civil society, replied: “With respect, I think your focus on elites is wrong. I think there’s as much talent in people that are not solicitors and not investment bankers and do other kinds of work, or do no work, in communities. The challenge is surely how do you create a culture across the country to encourage more social action.”