10/11/11

By Andrew Holt

David Cameron issued a defence of his Big Society vision when he faced questions on his big vision by senior MPs.

The Liaison Committee - made up of the chairs of the main Commons scrutiny bodies - chose Big Society as the focus of its latest session with the Prime Minister.

In a session themed "Big Society or Broken Society?", the PM said that the "top-down" model of politics no longer worked and that it "was time to try something different"

"It's about devolving power to the lowest level," Cameron said, before proclaiming opening up the provision of public services to communties and voluntary action as the second and third tenets.

He said: "Instead of civil servants actually running so many things, they need to become better at enabling other organisations to come forward and provide services, such as free schools and foundation hospitals".

And he suggested the big society vision was proving a success thus far. " Are we making it easier for people to come together at a local level and solve problems they have in their communities?" he asked. "If the answer is 'yes', then we are succeeding.

"We’re seeing across the country many local communities taking over the last pub in the village because it’s closing down, taking over a village shop, wanting to run the parks that their children play in and make sure they’re kept open. We’re seeing a lot of big society activity.

"Is it now easier to come together and do those things? The answer would have to be 'yes'."

Committee chair Alan Beith asked whether the St Paul's camp protesters were "a manifestation of the big society".

Cameron responded: "I have got this rather quaint view that you shouldn't be able to erect tents all over the place. I think protesting is something you, on the whole, should do on two feet rather than lying down - in some cases in a fairly comatose state."

He also said he plans to expand the National Citizen Service in 2015. "We want to get to 90,000 by 2014, with a further increase in 2015."

As part of his Big Society vision the PM said he supported social finance and investment models as an effective way to address policy areas that were "failing badly," highlighting the social impact bond as a way to do this.

"Britain is leading the world in the idea of social impact bonds," he said. "We want to see many, many more take place. I think it’s an extremely exciting way of getting private sector capital into solving social problems."

Cameron told the Conservative Party conference last month that creating the Big Society to resolve deep-seated social issues remained his "driving mission in politics".

The Big Society wants individuals, charities and communities to take on more responsibility and not "just look to Government to solve the many problems that we have".

Some critics have accused the Big Society of being a cover for privatising services and public spending cuts and the agenda is unclear.

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