Conservatives Plan 'Neighbourhood Army'

David Cameron's Tory Government would 'deploy' 5000 community organisers to tackle neighbourhood problems, under the party's Big Society pledge.

Speaking at a conference today, Mr Cameron and eleven members of the Shadow Cabinet set out how a Conservative government would give power to neighbourhood groups and boost "social action".

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

"It includes a whole set of unifying approaches – breaking state monopolies, allowing charities, social enterprises and companies to provide public services, devolving power down to neighbourhoods, making government more accountable."

Under the plan a neighbourhood 'army' of 5000 full-time, professional community organisers would be trained to bring communities together, help people start their own neighbourhood groups, and give communities the help they need to take control and tackle their problems. This plan is directly based on the successful community organising movement established by Saul Alinsky in the United States and has successfully trained generations of community organisers, including President Obama.

A 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.

This would provide new funding to support the next generation of social entrepreneurs, and helping successful social enterprises to expand and succeed, Mr Cameron said.

(PR/GK)