A week after Prime Minister David Cameron re-launched the initiative, the Jubilee Centre warned that the Big Society would be judged a failure if all it accomplished was the proliferation of charities and volunteers while poverty, inequality and crime remained high.

While the Big Society is intended to address some of the social problems affecting “Broken Britain”, the centre said the desired ends had not been spoken about enough.

Researcher Guy Brandon said: “The Big Society has been surrounded by confusion and is widely misunderstood by the public, largely because its ultimate purpose has not been explained.

“In part, the confusion reflects the elusive and emergent nature o f the initiative, and a language of process rather than the targets.

“Spending cuts have also led to a focus on fears about public service provision and the possible consequences of rolling back the state.”

The centre said that the Government should not be allowed to sidestep its responsibilities by passing them on to third sector organisations.

“It is not just people and communities that need to ‘take more responsibility’ and ‘act more responsibly’: the state is also expected to fulfil its responsibilities,” it said.

In particular, the centre pointed to the need to promote religious freedom as it warned that red tape was preventing people from volunteering, particularly people of faith.

“In reality it is therefore highly unlikely that any Big Society ambitions can succeed without the help of faith groups,” the centre said.