Tories plan anti-poverty tax breaks

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Special "social enterprise zones" could be established in a bid to attract investment from not-for-profit companies which help poor communities.

A Community Bank would be created to channel funds and allocate tax relief where it had the best effect, according to a policy taskforce set up by the party.

The report backs emulating the economic "enterprise zones" set up by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, claiming that they offer a useful template for a new style of community regeneration.

It also suggests that planning rules could be streamlined for social enterprises in recognition of the benefits they bring. The sector is currently made up of around 55,000 firms, such as Cafedirect and the Big Issue.

Tory leader David Cameron has already stressed his belief that the third sector must play a bigger role in boosting deprived neighbourhoods and communities.

The report insists that the proposals would give even small social enterprises the chance to help "transform" troubled areas.

It adds: "In the longer term, such financial measures should be more than offset by the savings in public expenditure as those people whom Labour has allowed to be 'decommissioned' are given real opportunities to rejoin society, in neighbourhoods where crime, addiction and unemployment are no longer an unchangeable and accepted status quo.

"This would be a social dividend on a grand scale."