The Tory flagship council sells off the Big Society:
David Cameron’s Big Society plans came under attack again today after a Tory council agreed to sell off nine buildings that house charities.
At a tense meeting last night Hammersmith and Fulham decided to press ahead with the sale which it claims will raise up to £20 million to help pay off debt. Critics say the move will force the closure of up to 30 community groups and leave thousands of vulnerable residents without support.
One of the buildings, Palingswick House, which houses 22 charities, is expected to be sold to author Toby Young’s West London Free School. The sell-off comes after Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, outgoing director of Britain’s largest volunteering charity, warned that town hall cuts are destroying the “volunteer army”.
It always was one of those ideas only taken seriously in the Westminster media bubble; in the real world everybody knew what the Big Society meant. “Why don’t we fire you, cut the budgets of every government organisation that might help you, then pat you on the shoulder for doing the work for free we used to pay you to do”?