[UK] Cameron to outline plans to combat poverty

from reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - In a further bid to overhaul the Conservative party's image, new leader David Cameron will outline his plans for tackling poverty later on Wednesday through promoting the work of charities and voluntary groups.

Cameron, 39, has announced a string of policy changes since becoming Tory leader in December, including new plans for health, police and schools.

His speech on Wednesday evening, at the Centre for Social Justice, will outline his plans for helping the poor and vulnerable -- a policy more usually associated with Prime Minister Tony Blair's left-leaning Labour party.

"We have radically different solutions (from Labour) to the entrenched problems of multiple deprivation, and the root causes of poverty in Britain today," he will say, according to pre-released extracts.

"On the one hand, we can see top-down centralised schemes from an outdated Labour approach that means well but fails badly.

"On the other, a forward-looking vision which recognises that social justice will only be delivered by empowering people to fulfil their potential."

Cameron will argue that Labour is wrong in only backing the state system to produce equality and will encourage cutting "red tape" to allow charities and voluntary groups to operate more freely.

The Conservatives have been at pains since their election defeat last May to shed what former party chairman Theresa May said in 2002 was a public perception that they are the "nasty party."