MPs urged to back 'Big Society' Bill

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Central Government and also in Communities

MPs were urged today to back a law aimed at promoting David Cameron's "Big Society" agenda by helping charities and social enterprises win public service contracts.

Under Tory MP Chris White's plan, voluntary organisations, social enterprises and small businesses which provide extra benefits to their communities will stand a better chance of securing public funds.

He told the Commons: "We need to empower and champion civil society. We need to create the conditions for civil society to flourish.

"We need to create the opportunity for voluntary organisations, for social enterprise, for socially responsible businesses to thrive.

"This is not going to happen by itself."

In the Victorian era, philanthropy was "fashionable" and many well-meaning groups sprang up, he said.

"We are not in the same position today. Unfortunately many years of centralisation from governments of all colours have stifled the natural creativity of our communities.

"And given the difficult economic times we now face, it is going to be a challenge to stimulate the kind of movement necessary to stimulate the Big Society.

"Of course government cannot and should not see it as a duty to forcibly create this society. That would defeat the point and would merely see one centralising structure replace another."

But he said: "The Government does have a role to play in being the catalyst for the development of civil society and enabling those organisations and individuals who wish to reach out and build stronger social networks the chance to do so."

The "elephant in the room" was money because "civil society cannot function in a financial vacuum".

Mr White's said his Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill would use public money to "leverage and galvanise" voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) groups.

During the Bill's second reading debate he said: "What we can see is that there is a definite trend towards services that are more local, more personalised and more responsive to our community needs.

"Civil society has a great opportunity to provide these services if it given the chance to do so and, once it has been given the chance to do so, to build on them."

He added: "This Bill will seek to make commissioners more enlightened in their approach and to send a strong message to all areas of the public sector that what is presently seen as good practice becomes normal practice."

Mr White (Warwick and Leamington) said the Bill would mean all Whitehall departments would work from a single strategy designed to promote the Government's use of social enterprises.

He said it would cost £41,000 to bring in such a strategy rather than having a "hotch-potch" of ideas that often frustrated those working in the sector.

As a result, public services would "reap significant benefits" from quality contractors while there would be added social value for communities, Mr White said.

He added: "It comes at a time when people are seriously asking questions about the future of our public services, about how we deliver a stronger economy but in a way which reflects the values of people and the communities in which we live.

"While rhetoric is important so we can inspire people to join in this project and articulate a vision for the country that we can all share in, we also need to be conscious of the need to take a definite course."

The Bill was supported by former communities secretary Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles). The Labour backbencher described the legislation as a "small Bill with a big intent".

She said one social enterprise in her constituency employed former drug addicts and alcoholics to refurbish derelict houses, and praised her local authority for "creative commissioning" by choosing the social enterprise".

Ms Blears said: "It does cost slightly more, it's not always the bottom line, not always the cheapest price but they (the council) recognise that if you are training people and transforming their lives then that is value."

But she warned Mr White's private members' bill must not be used as a back door to privatisation.

She said: "There must be no sense that using social enterprise can be a transition to privatisation. I make that point absolutely clear.

"It would damage the sector enormously if in fact this were to be a stopping point on a fast track to converting public services simply to private services."

Tory Richard Fuller (Bedford) welcomed the Bill because businesses had been "trying to find a more creative way" to pursue their social objectives other than the "history of donations and sponsorships".

He told MPs: "These do have their role and place - but there was always a gap for a new form of institution."

But Tory Steve Baker (Wycombe) said in an intervention: "I still remain confused about why we need to encode this creative search to produce value for others in national and local plans."

Mr Fuller replied: "Let's be clear, this is not a doctrinaire or a Stalinist interpretation: 'Thou shalt do this'. It is to provide different measures that local authorities can take into account.

"There is a prevailing assumption that local authorities and others will only look at 'least cost' and I believe that actually works against some of the motivations that those of us on this side of the House who want to promote entrepreneurship would want to see and want to believe."

Jon Trickett, shadow Cabinet Office minister, said Labour wants to see social enterprises develop and will support the Bill's second reading.

But he said the Bill highlights the "intellectual fissures which are at the core of the coalition's confused approach to public policy".

Mr Trickett said: "On the one hand they (the coalition) say they are in favour of a Big Society but on the other hand they don't always will the means. There is a contradiction between their professed communitarianism on the one and their neo-liberal tendencies of cutting the cost of services on the other."

He added: "The contradiction, the intellectual fissures which have been identified this morning and which I think go right to the heart of this Bill, I think explains the rumours ... of a fundamental disagreement between the secretaries of state in local government and at the Cabinet Office about this particular Bill."

Mr Trickett said the Government needed to work with social entrepreneurs to "unleash the potential...of the capacity of each one of us to do good in our own communities".

He said he supported the aims of the Bill but said Labour would wish to probe "the details and broad principles" in its committee stage.

Cabinet Office Minister Nick Hurd said the Government was "happy" to support the Bill.

"We will seek to amend it," he said. "But we do support the core proposition of the Bill that we should face a firmer requirement on commissioners...to consider the potential to maximise the social, environmental and economic impact of every pound they spend on behalf of the taxpayer."

However Mr Hurd attached conditions to the Government's support, with clauses in the Bill forcing ministers and local authorities to produce strategy documents set to be scrapped.

He said: "Strategies, particularly in this context, should be driven by the need of the moment and driven by conviction rather than a requirement to comply with some bureaucratic process."

The minister said the Office for Civil Society was already working with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to produce a "refreshed national strategy for social enterprise" to be published in March next year.

Mr Hurd said: "With those two conditions - the resistance to legislating for strategies both at national and local authority level - we are supportive of the objectives of the Bill.

"We think it is consistent with both the Big Society agenda and our public service reform and our intention to make it easier for charities, voluntary sector organisations and social enterprises to deliver public services."