John Sentamu: The strange case of the vanishing Big Society

But now this concept appears to have vanished without trace. No politician refers to it any more. Was it simply a soundbite, a ruse that played well with focus groups but that was easily pushed aside when put under greater scrutiny?

The cynic might suggest that it wasn’t so much a celebration of a thriving society where everyone looks out for their neighbour, but rather a ploy to get community groups to pick up the cost of local government cuts.

However, I hope that it was in fact a genuine attempt to move society forward – aiming to unite communities in a common cause. We do need some unifying method for deciding what our priorities are and what we want to achieve in and for our communities.

I am a big believer in community involvement and proper representation through the democratic process. We need accountable structures and citizens ready to serve their communities for the greater good – regardless of individual political beliefs. Civic mindedness should not be a thing of the past.

This is more important than ever now that pressure on resources is so tight and there are such hard choices to be made regarding local budgets. We need more honesty when discussing local priorities and how they should be delivered. One of the areas crying out for greater transparency is taxation.

Should local councils be able to raise local taxation on a significant scale, if they choose to do so? This issue has failed to be properly addressed by all central governments over many decades.

When central government starts putting in place caps on local council tax, or calling for referendums on such issues, I feel obliged to point out that we already have a referendum on who makes the decisions in the town hall – we have it every four years and it is called an election. Everyone wants to be popular, but short-termist views that ignore the long-term needs of the wider society are as unhealthy as they are unhelpful. We cannot afford to encourage “electoral myopia” – it is a serious disease with long-term consequences if not tackled properly at its root.

One of the reasons why we have failed to free local democracy from the shackles of central government is that we have not tackled these issues openly. It is only by facing them in the clear light of day and getting all those whom they affect to get involved, that we shall achieve a solution which is truly democratic and can be owned by local people. We need to acknowledge a massive proportion of local government finance still derives from national government and not from local taxes or other local fund raising.

I have nothing against the voluntary sector or social enterprises playing their part in providing services, however there needs to be a level playing field.

Currently there is a built-in bias in the system towards contracting out to the private sector as opposed to the voluntary sector. The implication of this is that organisations such as churches, 
who play such a key role in providing vision and cohesion for communities (and frankly, for picking up the pieces when other local solutions have failed) are unable to take a lead in providing these services in their local communities.

Private is not always better than public. It does not guarantee excellence or a good standard of care. Remember the mess private banks got us into. Vibrant and sustainable communities can flourish with the help of voluntary organisations such as the Church and its partners, but the conditions for this must be right. Too many projects have been launched in the past with insufficient administrative and technical support. As a result they have been unable to achieve their aims and have failed, wasting enthusiasm and communal energy as well as public money.

The Church is working with its partners to dignify and develop models for community based service provision – proven models that avoid the mistakes of the past. We believe this development of successful and proven models can be a mechanism for the entire voluntary sector to maximise their benefit to society. One of my predecessors, Archbishop William Temple, once said: “The Church is the only organisation that exists for the wellbeing of its non-members.” And he was absolutely right. The Church should always be about going out into communities showing love in action, rather than shutting the doors and talking to itself.

We need to get away from the political knockabout we have in this country where one group sits on one side of the Chamber and another group on the other. Our society is too important for that. As the Prime Minister famously said: “We are all in this together.” If that is the case then let us have an open discussion, putting hope and trust at the heart of our aspiration. Let us all be on the same side.