23 May 2011
The Big Society is not an ‘optional extra’ but the platform on which public service reform is being built, David Cameron said today.
In a speech delivered in Buckinghamshire this morning, the prime minister attempted to set out what the Big Society is and how it will work in practice.
Addressing criticisms that the policy was a ‘fluffy add-on’, Cameron said: ‘Creating a country which feels like a community, where our relationships are better and the glue that binds people together is stronger… This is what’s in my heart. It’s what fires me up in the morning… This is about as gritty and important as it gets.’
The prime minister announced that the Treasury’s Green Book – the basis on which the government assesses the costs and benefits of different policies – would be revised to take account of their social impact.
‘We are developing a new test for all policies – that they should demonstrate not just how they help reduce public spending and cut regulation and bureaucracy – but how they create social value too.’ He hailed the move as one of the ‘most quietly radical things this government is doing’.
Cameron said the government’s public service reforms were one way of making the Big Society a reality, particularly the involvement of more third-sector providers and the transfer of more powers to professionals.
The prime minister also said he wanted to broaden notions of responsibility to encompass responsibility for the wider community.
The Localism Bill was cited as one way in which people could get more involved in community affairs. ‘So if a local service you rely on is threatened with closure, you’re no longer powerless to act because a new “Community Right to Buy” gives local people the chance to save a valued local resource – be it a pub, village shop or leisure centre,’ he said.
Commenting on Cameron’s speech, Simon Parker, director of the New Local Government Network, said the Big Society was already under way.
‘In repeatedly relaunching this agenda with newer, catchier schemes, ministers are in danger of missing the point,’ Parker said.
‘Big Society schemes are already happening up and down the country. What they need now is time, space and support rather than any further disruption.
‘Local government has a key role to play in stimulating the social capital that already exists in communities. The discussion should not be about creating artificial activism and engagement out of thin air, but about how local government can be empowered to nurture the energy that is already there.’
