With the big vote only a few weeks away, here’s a brief rundown of what the UK’s three major parties’ manifestos had to say about supporting the third sector:

Labour Party (opens a new window)

• Introduce a £75 million Social Investment Bank to help create “social enterprise hubs” in every community.
• Extend the right of public sector workers to request they deliver services as a social enterprise.
• Promote community-scale renewable energy and district heating schemes.
• Greater support for third sector organisations to compete for public sector contracts.
• Encourage more local organisations to run on cooperative principles and oversee an expansion in the number of Community Interest Companies and mutuals.
• Widen share ownership to embrace a culture of “employee-owned businesses”.
• Herald a new age of mutualism where local shops, pubs, children’s centres and even football clubs become community-owned cooperatives.

Conservative Party (opens a new window)

• Reform public service delivery to enable social enterprises, charities and the voluntary sector to play a leading role in delivering services and tackling social problems.
• Use unclaimed assets to create a “Big Society Bank” that will provide new finance for third sector organisations.
• Introduce a “fair deal on grants” to provide greater stability for third sector groups.
• Reprioritise the Big Lottery Fund to focus its support on delivering social action through the community sector.

Liberal Democrats (opens a new window)

• Pass a new Mutuals, Cooperatives and Social Enterprises Bill and introduce a new “Mutuals Minister”.
• Increase the role that mutuals, cooperatives and social enterprises have in creating a “more balanced and mixed economy”.
• Encourage community-owned renewable energy schemes.
• Use money in dormant betting accounts to create a capital fund to improve local sports facilities and community clubs.
• Bring in “easy giving accounts” at publicly-owned banks to enable people to have charitable giving accounts alongside their current or savings accounts.
• Reform Gift Aid to operate at a single rate of 23%.
• Empower educational charities to become involved in delivering state-funded education.

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