‘Big Society’ doomed to failure, MPs warn

Prime Minister David Cameron’s Big Society policy is doomed to failure unless a dedicated minister is appointed to help end confusion and get smaller charities involved, MPs warned.

In a strongly worded report, the public administration select committee said the UK government had failed to explain the project properly or remove serious barriers to its success.

Its chairman, senior Tory Bernard Jenkin, predicted that without a “comprehensive and coherent change programme” in Whitehall, reforms would be “defeated by inertia”.

Eighteen months after the coalition came to power promising a revolution in the role of charity and community provision of services, there was still “public confusion”, the committee found.

“Without a coherent plan, the government has so far been unable to communicate effectively to the public what the Big Society project means in terms of practical policies,” it said.