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Big Society Agenda

I very much hope that the shadow Minister believes in the big society now, because he certainly did not back in August 2010 when, as part of an article for Asian Voice, he wrote about ““the inchoate mush of the pathetic ‘big society’ fantasy””. We intend to make it easier and more convenient for people to give to charity as part of their everyday lives. We want to weave the ability to donate to good causes seamlessly into the fabric of everyday life. Technology, which is an increasing part of all our lives, can play an important role in making it easier to give. The White Paper highlights a number of innovative schemes, such as ATM giving, which allows people to give at the touch of a button when using a cash machine and ““round the pound””—that may ring a bell for the shadow Minister—which allows the balance in rounding up at the till when paying for shopping in some large retailers to go to charity. There is also the JustTextGiving scheme, which allows spontaneous giving to charities of all sizes by mobile phone and is free to set up. Each charity can get an individual number to receive donations by text. There is also the phone app ““DoSomeGood””, which allows people to donate their time, either to gather information required by charities or to volunteer time to help. The Government have committed more than £700,000 to help develop the Philanthropy UK service to make it easier for those with higher disposable incomes to give. That service offers free and impartial advice to aspiring philanthropists and connects wealthy people with charities that need their support. We want, however, to make giving to charity more compelling and to make it the social norm. For those of us who already give to charity, the Government want to look at ways of increasing what we give and for those not yet giving we want to encourage them to do so. The last Budget introduced inheritance tax changes so that there will be a reduction in inheritance tax rates for those who leave 10% or more of their estate to charity. Payroll giving is a great way to give to charity but in the UK payroll giving represents only about 3% of the total. Many people are simply unaware of how easy it is to do and how cost-effective it is for the recipient charity. We want to change that and raise the profile of payroll giving, so we are sponsoring the national payroll giving awards, which last year was won by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Finally, we have looked at ways in which we, as the Government, can make it easier and more efficient to run a charity, so that they can spend less on bureaucracy and more on helping those who need their support. That is why we announced in the 2011 Budget a number of important tax incentives and cuts to red tape, which will see the removal of paperwork for gift aid donations up to £5,000. Those are simple changes, but ones that will make a huge difference, especially to smaller charities. We hope to achieve even more as we implement the report of Lord Hodgson’s red tape task force. I said earlier that the devolution boundaries mean that many of the big society themes are devolved. In Northern Ireland, the Minister for Social Development, Nelson McCausland, has responsibility for the voluntary and community sector and the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Arlene Foster, has responsibility for the social economy. I have held preliminary discussions with both those Ministers and also with the First Minister on the subject of the big society agenda, and I am pleased that they have all taken a genuine interest in the subject. Indeed, Minister McCausland spoke at the big society seminar I hosted at Hillsborough Castle at which the Minister for Civil Society, my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd) gave the keynote address. In his speech, Nelson McCausland said: ““My Department has followed with interest the emerging thinking on the Big Society agenda… Whilst the component parts of it are largely devolved matters, I have no doubt that as an integral part of the UK, there is much of common interest to us.”” I was pleased to learn that the Northern Ireland Executive have set aside £80 million for a social investment fund. I understand that the First and Deputy First Minister have launched a consultation on how it will be spent in due course. If the hon. Member for East Antrim catches your eye, perhaps he could provide us with an update and advise the Committee how he intends to spend the money from the dormant bank accounts that has been allocated to Northern Ireland. It is my hope that the money could be used to take forward the big society agenda in Northern Ireland, especially as we seem to be more further advanced than Scotland or Wales. The money could be used to develop projects such as the new £20 million social enterprise project, Skainos, which is being developed in inner east Belfast. Work began last year when Her Majesty the Queen and former President Mary McAleese jointly launched the project. When finished it will provide a shared space for community transformation and renewal. The new square within the complex will be capable of hosting open-air events, overlooked by new mixed-tenure housing. It will be a genuinely shared space with a living presence right around the clock and it will be opened in July next year. Nelson McCausland said that he preferred the terms ““good society”” or ““new society”” to ““big society””. I have no objection to those names, or to any other name, as a Northern Ireland version for this agenda. We should not let names get in the way and we should not let political differences prevent us from doing more for the people we represent. I said earlier that I would return to the subject of the national citizen service. This exciting project is all about mixing up young people from different backgrounds and challenging them with new experiences. They are then encouraged to work together in setting up a social action project to make a positive difference to their communities. The feedback from the pilots has been very positive and I very much hope that my hon. Friend the Minister for Civil Society might be persuaded to hold a pilot in Northern Ireland if the rules allow it. If that pilot comes about, I hope that the Executive will take note and give consideration to taking this project forward in future years, tailoring it to meet the specific needs of Northern Ireland. During the coming months, I shall urge ministerial colleagues in Stormont to take more notice of the big society agenda, as we believe that it can have a huge benefit for the people of Northern Ireland, and as part of that dialogue I look forward to our continued debate this afternoon.