Both the public and private sector don’t “quite use enough imagination” when it comes to harnessing a potential volunteer workforce, the former minister for civil society has said.

Nick Hurd MP, the former minister for civil society (pictured), said that there are currently “two big market failures” when it comes to volunteering in the UK. He said that there isn’t enough evidence available to show prospective volunteers the benefits of volunteering and also said neither the public or private sector shows enough imagination when it comes to approaching the public.

“There are two really big market failures: one is we don’t have enough evidence about the value of volunteering. If we could really build a proper evidence base about the value of volunteering to volunteers we could create a ‘virtuous cycle’.

“We also need better infrastructure that connects people with the opportunity to give because it goes on everywhere. We don’t use quite enough imagination in the public sector at least, or even in the private sector, and think ‘well actually how could we do more to harness the energy of our citizens?’”

Hurd, who was being interview by Andy Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England, on a BBC Radio 4 programme on volunteering which aired last night, also said that he remained unsure whether Big Society had been a failure or not.

He said: “I have to be very frank, we struggled to build trust with the public about the Big Society as too many people saw it as a cover for cuts. I think it’s a bit early to say whether budget cuts or the Big Society has won that one.”

Haldane said that there are an estimated 15 million people in the UK who volunteer on a regular basis every year, with the figure doubling if you include people who volunteer on a less regular basis.

Based on these numbers, Justin Davis Smith, executive director of volunteering and development at NCVO told Haldane that, without volunteering, British society would “be a desert really. Society as we know it would start to crumble”.

However, Jamie Whyte, a philosopher and former New Zealand politician, told Haldane that volunteering was in danger of turning into “an act of vanity” and suggested that mobilising a volunteer workforce should be seen as a “back up” to a failure of the state.

“Over recent decades and specifically with this conservative government, there have been attempts made to mingle the state and what some people call the charitable sector and I personally find that very regrettable. In fact I find it slightly sinister.

“The voluntary system isn’t a good system, it’s a back-up system you want when the main system hasn’t quite worked. It shouldn’t be promoted, it should be thought of as ‘well, it’s a shame that we need it, but we do’. We don’t want the government encouraging it.”

Haldane’s Volunteer Nation will air again on BBC Radio 4 on 20 December and is available to listen to on BBC iPlayer.