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Sector queues up to meet the Tories

By Mathew Little, Third Sector, 4 March 2009

Nick Hurd, shadow charities minister

Conferences, dinners and working parties as the Conservatives continue to ride high in opinion polls

 

The Charity Tax Group is the latest voluntary sector organisation to hold talks with the Conservative Party, which is maintaining a 10 per cent lead in the opinion polls.

Peter Jenkins, a technical adviser to the CTG, said last week that the Tories could be more willing than the Labour Party to deal with the perennial sore point of charities' irrecoverable VAT.

"It's possible that a Tory government will be more culturally aligned to the needs of the sector," he said.

With an election due before May next year, groups such as chief executives body Acevo and umbrella groups the NCVO and Navca are all preparing for the possibility of a Conservative government. The Institute of Fundraising is soon to meet the Tories to discuss possible reforms of Gift Aid.

One chief executive of a sector umbrella body said: "Would we be putting as much effort in if they weren't so ahead in the polls? Probably not, in truth."

Acevo set up a working party to respond to the Tories' green paper for the sector, which was released in June. The group will present its report next month. Navca held a session on developing its relationship with the Tories at its annual conference last September. In January, it hosted a dinner with Nick Hurd, shadow charities minister, for sector bodies including the Directory of Social Change, the Urban Forum and the Community Foundation Network. This week, the NCVO and 10 other representative bodies are meeting Hurd to discuss his party's policy on capacity building.

According to Olly Kendall, senior account manager at consultancy Insight Public Affairs, many organisations will be positioning themselves as 'go-to' groups for the Tories. "It's about relationship building," he said. "At the moment, the Tories are a blank canvas."

But John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, said things had moved on from the getting-to-know-you stage. "We are into the nuts and bolts of policy commitments," he said. "Manifestos are being developed. They've had their green paper; it's down to what commitments we can secure for the sector.

FOUR KEY TORIES

- Nick Hurd MP Shadow charities minister since last October

- Jeremy Hunt MP Shadow culture secretary. Plans to restructure lottery funds

- Iain Duncan Smith MP Ex-leader. Big influence on Tories' policies for the sector

- Harriett Baldwin Chair of Futurebuilders investment committee and candidate for West Worcestershire

TORIES AND THE SECTOR: A TIMELINE

- 16.09.2008 Navca conference. Keynote speech to conference from the then shadow charities spokesman Greg Clark. That month's Guardian/ICM poll gives Tories a nine-point lead

20.11.2008 - Acevo sets up Tory policy working party chaired by Harriett Baldwin, chair of Futurebuilders and Conservative parliamentary candidate. November's ICM gives Tories a 15-point lead

29.01.2009 - Navca dinner with shadow charities minister Nick Hurd for a wide range of sector umbrella bodies. Tories' lead down to 12 points, says latest ICM in The Guardian

02.03.2009 - NCVO capacity-building meeting. Umbrella body invites group of 10 sector bodies to meet Hurd. Tories' lead still at 12 points in January's ICM pol

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