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Third Sector Review

I declare my interests as a trustee of the Mactaggart cyber café, of Commonweal Housing and of various charitable giving trusts—I have been involved in that area all my life. I want to discuss three important aspects of the strategy report, which are voice and campaigning, strengthening communities and creating a healthy environment for the third sector. Government Members and Opposition Members have had a ding-dong about voice and campaigning, and I am disappointed by the view taken by Conservative Front Benchers and Back Benchers that there is something distasteful about charities choosing to campaign. We need to trust the charitable sector. I do not believe that an organisation such as Save the Children would spend an enormous amount of its money on political campaigning unless it thought that that was effective. Furthermore, I know that my constituents are keen to spend their hard-earned money on that organisation. It is worth trying to think through where the voice comes from. In the first instance, it comes from the efforts of those charities to meet particular needs. Such charities see when the shoe is rubbing in statutory services, and they realise where the gaps are. Sometimes they invent services to fill such gaps—the hospice movement, the carers movement and the probation service were all invented by the voluntary sector—but sometimes they rightly point to the Government and say, ““Shift yourselves. Get active. Do it.””