ABSTRACT

Tony Blair: Community-building ‘We have always said that human capital is the core of the new economy. But increasingly it is also social capital that matters too – the capacity to get things done, to cooperate, the magic ingredient that makes all the difference. Too often in the past government programmes damaged social capital – sending in the experts but ignoring community organisations, investing in bricks and mortar but not people. In the future we will need to invest in social capital as surely as we invest in skills and buildings. The voluntary sector is – I believe – showing the way, making the link between rebuilding communities and rebuilding economic opportunity’ (Speech at NCVO annual conference, July 1999, p. 4).