It’s easy to be cynical about David Cameron’s Big Society idea. Does he really believe that power should be ‘localised’ and that people and communities should take greater responsibility for their life chances or is he just saying that because the government is broke and can’t afford to do anything themselves?

I don’t feel we have the luxury of time to have that debate. More and more people are losing their jobs, impacting largely on the most disadvantaged groups. Businesses are closing down, projects are losing their funding. Any government with the financial mess that has been inherited has little choice but to make the cuts it has.

I am however sceptical that banks will do much to respond to Vince Cable’s call for them to lend more. If he asks them, they will probably not respond. If he tells them, well that’s a different story. I look forward to him doing that.

Getting rid of the regional development agencies and Business Link are initiatives that are largely to be welcomed – as long as the net consequence is not a void which paralyses the many excellent projects that have been helping people get going in business.

I have been calling for government to use some of the money it has saved from the cuts in useless training programmes to assist in triggering sparks of economic activity by micro-financing social enterprises and it appears I have not been the only one to have been doing so. Yesterday a group of us met with some ministers to develop challenging and innovative ways to help get us out of this mess.

The plan for the Big Society Bank is emerging as a key element in making this come to life. Amidst all the gloom, we have cause here at least to be hopeful that ministers are listening and open to new ways to getting us back on track.