Tories outline their plans and policies for the sector

The Conservative Party would create a powerful 'Office for Civil Society' (OCS) at the heart of government to fight for the interests of charities, social enterprises, co-operatives and community groups if it were elected, party leader David Cameron outlined in the voluntary sector paper, A Stronger Society: Voluntary Action in the 21st Century, launched this week.

The commitment is one of a number of pledges set out in a green paper on the sector, unveiled by Cameron. The paper’s aim is to initiate consultation with the voluntary sector, which will lead to the final development of the party’s manifesto pledges ahead of the next general election.

The party’s top pledges include:

• Simplifying Gift Aid to reduce the bureaucratic burden on charities - with the Conservatives taking the position that Gift Aid must remain in the gift of the donor: “We regard it as essential to maintain the link between the rates of income tax and Gift Aid since this embodies the principle that charitable giving should be out of untaxed income.”
• Working with charities to sponsor a debate on whether it is possible to establish a new social norm around charitable giving.
• Setting up a Social Investment Bank as a wholesaler of ‘patient capital’ to a wide range of social investment institutions - the paper acknowledges and agrees with the findings of the Commission on Unclaimed Assets as to the viability of an SIB, stating the Conservatives would “adopt its proposals for the title, role and institutional structure of the new bank.”

The party sees one of the key functions of the OCS will be to ensure a “timely and coherent consideration of the needs of the sector across the whole of the Government’s legislative programme.”