The ConservativeHome blog site has responded to Sir Stephen Bubb’s recent letter to the Prime Minister by attacking his Labour links and stating that he “speaks for the big charities preoccupied with lobbying and suckling on the teat of the taxpayer”.

The website, founded and funded by Lord Ashcroft that is officially independent of the Conservative Party but supportive of it, posted the blog on Monday, the same day that Sir Stephen’s letter attracted widespread national media coverage for its assertion that the Big Society is “effectively dead”. In the letter, Sir Stephen told David Cameron that the policy had failed largely because the government had not kept its promises on voluntary sector involvement in public service reform.

The ConservativeHome blog, which is not attributed to any author, attempts to discredit Sir Stephen by pointing out that he was “a Labour councillor in Lambeth who was surcharged and disqualified from office during the rate capping era in the 1980s”.  It points out that he earns a six-figure salary as chief executive of Acevo and states that funding to Acevo from the Office for Civil Society has almost doubled over the past year.

The blog also says that the public spending cuts criticised by Sir Stephen in his letter are decisions that are made locally by councils, and that his “implication of a universal trend is highly misleading”.

And in response to his condemnation of recent government moves to scrap statutory consultation periods, the writer states that if Sir Stephen does indeed represent his members in this view, “that shows just how absorbed the big charities have become by bureaucracy”.

It concludes: “There has been a betrayal of the Big Society ideal, but it is not by David Cameron. It is from the charity fat cat bureaucrats like Sir Stephen. Charities need to go back to their roots.”

Responding to the blog today, Sir Stephen told civilsociety.co.uk that he thought it was “rather pathetic that ConservativeHome is unable to deal with the serious issues I raised and can only respond by attacking me personally, in a juvenile, playground-type way”.

He added that research has shown that half of all councils, both Labour and Conservative, have disproportionately cut money to the sector.

Hurd's response: I am proud of our achievements

The minister for civil society, Nick Hurd, also replied to Sir Stephen’s letter today, having been asked to do so by the Prime Minister.  In his open letter to Sir Stephen, he says he is proud of what the coalition has achieved in the first half of its Parliament, and goes on to list policies and initiatives that have benefited the voluntary sector.

These include the Investment and Contract Readiness Fund; the Social Outcomes Fund; the Social Value Act; the Commissioning Academy; the Localism Act; £600m in new tax incentives to support philanthropy, and National Citizen Service.

Hurd also points out that Sir Stephen, “as a member of the NHS Future Forum”, is “right to welcome the bigger role that the [health] reforms allow charities to play”.  

He says his proudest moment to date has been launching Big Society Capital, and adds: “The Work Programme’s payment-by-results requirement has been challenging for some providers, but it has allowed hundreds of charities to get involved in helping almost 200,000 to find a job.”

Sir Stephen said Hurd’s response “had more to do with party politics than anything else”.

He pointed out that, for example, National Citizen Service was originally meant to be made available to every 16-year-old, not just the 90,000 that Hurd claimed would take part by 2014.

“Basically, they have overpromised and underdelivered,” he said.