The Conservative Party has today launched its manifesto for the third sector pledging new funding to social enterprises, voluntary sector grants and a "Big Society Bank".

Conservative Party leader David Cameron announced his "Big Society" plan to fix the ills caused by "broken Britain".

"It is a guiding philosophy," Cameron said, "a society where the leading force for progress is social responsibility, not state control".

The answer Cameron stated, lay in a new localism, the encouragement of social enterprise and Conservative plans for a "national citizens service" putting 16-year-olds on a two-month programme in which they will "learn to be socially responsible".

The Conservative leader stressed he wants to build "a big society" better able to tackle a huge range of social problems from crime to housing to local regeneration as something "to add to what the state already does" rather than replace it.

The Tories also plan to train "a national army" of 5,000 community organisers to help local neighbourhoods tackle social problems, with the organisers then raising funds to pay their own salaries and get projects going.

The new policies represent a Conservative agenda to build the 'Big Society', where more power and control is decentralised to neighbourhoods and where people are empowered to come together to address social problems.

Responding to Cameron's speech, Stephen Bubb, chief executive of ACEVO said: "We welcome the Conservatives' manifesto on the Big Society and their plans to empower communities. Should they be in government come May we hope they will work closely with us to make this a reality.

"In particular we welcome their commitment to transforming our public services by opening them up to third sector providers, and their promise to use unclaimed assets to make this possible through the creation of a Social Investment Bank."

Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, added: "We welcome the Conservatives' intention to galvanise neighbourhood renewal and social action and their commitment that charities and voluntary groups will play a leading role in achieving this. We are pleased that they have endorsed several of the key commitments in NCVO's manifesto.

"We are delighted they have reiterated their support for a Social Investment Wholesale Bank, or an independent Big Society Bank as they call it. It will be vital in generating finance for voluntary and community groups in delivering their services.

"Finally, we are pleased they will establish an annual Big Society Day, which we hope will be a bank holiday, to celebrate the work of community groups, as well as making volunteering part of the culture of the civil service.

"We hope they will give all employees the right to five days paid time off for volunteering. If the Conservatives are elected, we look forward to helping them realise their vision."

Chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, John Low added: "Our work at the Charities Aid Foundation has always been about empowering communities and making the most of people's desire to transform society, so it's great to see a major political party seeking to build on this popular enthusiasm to change society and local communities for the better.

"The 'Big Society Bank' proposed by the Conservatives could potentially unleash millions of pounds for social investment in charities and social enterprises, enabling smaller organisations to grow, compete and make a difference. It's reassuring to see their commitment to establishing this as a wholesale provider of capital to existing suppliers and not distort the market."

The key policy summary of the Building a Big Society document are:
i) The Conservative Party will strengthen and support social enterprises to help deliver its public service reforms:
• The Conservative Party will create an independent Big Society Bank, funded from unclaimed bank assets, which will leverage
private sector investment to provide hundreds of millions of pounds of new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other non-governmental bodies.
• One of the purposes of the Big Society Bank will be to provide funds to intermediary bodies with a track ecord of supporting and growing social enterprises. These intermediary bodies will use these funds to
support the next generation of social entrepreneurs, and help more social enterprises to win government contracts and receive revenues from our payment-by-results public service frameworks.

ii) The Conservative Party will stimulate the creation and development of neighbourhood groups in every area:
• The Conservative Party will establish National Centres for Community Organising.We will fund the training of 5,000 independent
community organisers over the lifetime of the next Parliament. This national army of community organisers will have the skills needed to raise funds to pay for their own salaries, help communities to establish and operate neighbourhood groups, and help neighbourhood groups to tackle difficult social challenges. In the US, the community organising endowment established by Saul Alinsky has trained generations of community organisers, including President Obama.
• Providing neighbourhood grants for the UK's poorest areas. This micro-funding will go to charities and social
enterprises to work with new and existing neighbourhood groups in the most deprived and broken communities.
This will provide a new incentive for people to come together to form neighbourhood groups in the poorest areas,
as well as an incentive for charities and social enterprises to support the creation of new neighbourhood groups.

iii) The Conservative Party will encourage mass engagement in neighbourhood groups and social action projects by:
• Transforming the civil service into a 'civic service' by making regular community service a key element in staff appraisals. This will help to bring about a culture change throughout the civil service.
• Launching an annual national 'Big Society Day' to celebrate the work of neighbourhood groups and encourage more people to take part in social action projects.

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