CLEARLYSO EVENT: Tory government will disappoint us, sector says

The majority of an audience of 100 social entrepreneurs gathered at a social investment conference yesterday believed that a Tory government would disappoint the sector.

The ClearlySo annual social business conference audience was asked what they expected from a Conservative government. An overwhelming majority said they expected a disappointing performance while approximately 15 per cent of the crowd expected an 'above average' performance.

Another audience poll asked what delegates thought of the current Labour government's performance on social business. Around one-third of the audience members rated it 'above average' and around 40 per cent rated it 'average'.

Several members of the audience expressed concern about whether the Tories really understood social enterprise.

Contributing to the debate, policy and communications officer at the School for Social Entrepreneurs Nick Temple pointed to a recent BBC Newsnight interview between host Jeremy Paxman and shadow secretary of state for work and pensions Theresa May which had focused on the Tories' policies for poverty alleviation.

Temple said: 'Theresa May's answers to Jeremy Paxman seemed to be social entrepreneurship, regardless of what he was asking.'

He added that it would be much easier to judge whether the Tories understood social enterprises fully if they had concrete proposals on the table.

However, Temple said that there were positive aspects to the Conservatives' policies.

'What excites me most about the Conservative agenda is the devolving of power,' he said. This would mean more freedom and trust being given to social entrepreneurs, although he warned that this could also bring some dangers.

'There actually has to be more trust, we need to move from a contract society to a trust society,' said Temple. 'That's more risky and we will have some Daily Mail headlines and maybe some Financial Times headlines when things go wrong.'