Practical proposals to rebuild communities and address social breakdown

Nicholas Soames, Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex, this week welcomed the proposals by the new Conservative leader, David Cameron, to tackle social breakdown and help charities and the voluntary sector.

Conservatives are investigating ways to remove the barriers that stand in the way of the social sector’s expansion, in particular, by creating new ‘social enterprise zones’ where social enterprises, charities and voluntary organisations can thrive.

Nicholas Soames explained; “There is so much in our society to celebrate – so much that is getting better, but there is a side to Britain that we cannot ignore: social breakdown. Respect cannot be earned, communities rebuilt or lives put back on track by Government diktat or Whitehall task forces.”

The possible policy solutions include:

• Simplifying the complicated and fragmented flows of funding for charities and the voluntary sector.

• Relaxing the rules in the tax and benefits system to reward voluntary work.

• Offering longer term contracts for provision of services so the voluntary sector can grow.

• Changing planning rules to make it easier for the voluntary sector to use space flexibly and create new facilities, whilst respecting any concerns of local residents.

• Creating a level playing field in the awarding of contracts for the delivery of social services at the community level.

• Introducing a National School Leaver Programme, to prepare teenagers for their responsibilities as adult citizens and teach them about the life in different communities.

Nicholas Soames added; “We need to harness the wisdom, expertise, creativity and hard work of the best social enterprises – the people who actually know and work in broken communities. Just as business entrepreneurs helped then to cure the British economic disease, so today social entrepreneurs can help cure Britain’s social malaise.”

Notes

About Social Enterprise: Social enterprises are neither traditional charities, nor conventional businesses: they are businesses that trade with a social purpose. They use business tools and techniques to achieve social aims. The best known examples in this country are The Big Issue and Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant, but there are thousands of others achieving great things all over Britain. While many social enterprises are small, responding successfully to local problems, others are substantial operations working in many different sectors. They contribute more than £18 billion a year to our economy and employ around half a million people.