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The Big Society in crisis: Are the wheels coming off the PM's Big Idea?
Major report says cuts are undermining the Tories' flagship policy as the public struggles to understand what it means
By Jane Merrick
Sunday, 15 May 2011
The Big Society is the brainchild of Steve Hilton, the Conservative strategy chief
Britain's poorest areas will be left behind by David Cameron's Big Society, a major report will warn tomorrow, as two polls show that the public are increasingly confused by the concept.
The Prime Minister will try to revive his faltering mission to boost social action and community volunteering next week - on the eve of President Obama's visit to Britain - by highlighting success stories that illustrate his vision of a Big Society.
But a hard-hitting report into the scheme by an independent cross-party commission will say that the Government's enthusiasm for it risks being undermined by "over-rapid and poorly managed public spending cuts" to the voluntary sector, particularly in low-income areas.
And a YouGov poll carried out for the commission, chaired by the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Rennard, found that 78 per cent of the public believe the PM and Government have failed to articulate what the term actually means.
The report says this failure to tell a "sufficiently compelling narrative" has "fuelled high levels of cynicism" about the motives behind it at a time of swingeing public spending cuts.
Because of this vagueness, the agenda risks being used by Whitehall and local authorities as a "cover for cuts", the authors argue. The commission panel includes Mr Cameron's former policy adviser turned Conservative MP, Nick Boles, as well as the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, and charity chiefs.
A separate ComRes poll for The Independent on Sunday shows that in fact fewer people understand what the term "Big Society" means now than three months ago: 40 per cent admit they could not grasp the concept, compared with 30 per cent in February.
Mr Cameron launched his vision for the Big Society, the brainchild of his strategy chief Steve Hilton, in November 2009. After becoming Prime Minister a year ago, he said his government's reform agenda would have the Big Society at its heart.
But since then, some cabinet ministers have been indifferent to the project, with the Liberal Democrats under Nick Clegg virtually disowning the notion altogether.