Nick Hurd interview: Tories aim for a sector transformed

The Minister for Civil Society tells Stephen Cook of Third Sector Daily about cuts in spending and the Conservative vision of the voluntary sector's future.

When the Labour government published its third sector review in 2007, Gordon Brown contributed a foreword to it, emphasising that the Office of the Third Sector would be putting £500m into charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises between 2008 and 2011.

What's the corresponding amount that Nick Hurd, the new Minister for Civil Society, will be asking the Treasury to allocate to his office when it publishes in October the 2011-14 comprehensive spending review, which is expected to propose cuts of at least 25 per cent to public spending?

"I can't give you a specific number," says Hurd. "But it will be significantly less than that." The main reason he gives is the obvious one - that the nation's finances are in dire straits and the government is determined to cut the deficit quickly.

But it's not his only reason. "There is a serious point here," he says. "If you look at that £500m, has it made a huge difference to the sector? Has it transformed the fundamentals? Has it moved the sector in a healthy and positive direction, towards being more independent and resilient and efficient?

"The jury's out on that - I'm not sure it has. We're different from Labour. The heart of the big society agenda is about trying to reduce people's sense of dependence on the state, and that goes for the sector as well."

He says the "creeping dependence" of the sector on the state is illustrated by the fact that nearly 40 per cent of its income comes from statutory sources and 70 per cent of that goes to organisations with incomes of more than £1m.
 

Read the full story at Third Sector Online.