Cameron launches Big Society

The first details of the government’s Big Society plans were launched by David Cameron in a speech in Liverpool.

Community projects in four parts of the country – Liverpool, the Eden Valley in Cumbria, the Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and the London Borough of Sutton – will receive an expert organiser and dedicated civil servants to ensure "people power" initiatives get off the ground and inspire a wider change. These schemes and others in the future, he said, would represent "the biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the street".

The initiatives being championed include a local buy-out of a rural pub, efforts to recruit volunteers to keep museums open, support to speed up broadband supply, and giving residents more power over council spending.

Mr Cameron also revealed further details of the Big Society Bank, which will allow money in bank and building society accounts dormant for at least 15 years to be diverted, enabling charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to take over the running of public services. He stated his hope that over time, the Bank would provide "hundreds of millions of pounds" to Big Society projects.

Ministers hope the Big Society Bank will be operational quickly enough to see the first money distributed to groups by April 2011.

Voluntary Sector North West have put together a step by step briefing on the Big Society plans. Read it now.

Watch David Cameron's speech in full now.