The Prime Minister, in a speech in Liverpool, this morning laid out his vision for a "Big Society" arguing this move would empower communities at the expense of the State.

The key themes for the Big Society are about empowering communities, transferring power to the people from the state as well as creating a nation of volunteers. The Prime Minister wants local community groups to be able to run public services including transport, education, post offices and shape the destiny of local housing projects.

“If you’ve got an idea to make life better, if you want to improve your local area, don’t just think about it – tell us what you want to do and we will try and give you the tools to make this happen," said Mr. Cameron in his speech.

‘In Britain they didn’t just pay down the deficit, they didn’t just balance the books, they didn’t just get the economy moving again, they did something really exciting in their society’,” the Prime Minister hoped would be the key legacy of his Big Society initiative in the next decade or so.

Mr. Cameron identified four areas in different parts of the country to pilot the "Big Society" project. They are - the London Borough of Sutton And Cheam, Windsor and Maiden, Eden valley in Cumbria as well as Liverpool. These areas were chosen following their applications to Downing Street and would be the first ones to receive funding from the Big Society Bank.  These areas would be helped by dedicated civil servants who would not only provide advice on legal or bureaucratic issues but would also identify and train appropriate individuals to become community organisers.

The Big Society Bank, would use "“every penny of dormant bank and building society account money” to help finance social enterprises, charities and voluntary groups" said the Prime Minister and he pledged that the new Bank would fund hundreds of millions of pounds in the coming years.  Concerns have been raised that the dormant bank accounts in Britain could only provide start up funds of no more than £60 million.

The Prime Minister also rejected criticism that his Big Society plans are a ploy to deflect attention from the massive public sector cuts initiated by the new coalition government.

Most organisations in the third sector have welcomed the idea but have expressed concern on the funding aspects.

"It is going to be very challenging for them to play a bigger role if they have less resources to do it," said Ben Kernighan, from NCVO.

Malcolm Hayday, Chief Executive of Charity Bank said:

“We have called for the ‘Big Society Bank’ to be a wholesale provider of finance to existing independent intermediates so we are pleased that this seems to be the case. The involvement of current social investment organisations will provide the most effective way to leverage the impact of the money available and therefore multiplying the effect of the funds available.”


“As a regulated bank, for each pound of additional capital invested in Charity Bank we can make at least seven pounds available to Charities and Social enterprises. We currently have loan commitments of £61million and, as a result of our loans; our borrowers have been able to raise a further £180m across the sector. With more capital we could multiply this support many times over.”