Iain Duncan Smith has pledged that the voluntary sector will get more cash for innovative local projects under a future Conservative government.

In a Bournemouth meeting with leaders of the voluntary sector, the Tory leader said his party regarded it as a "mission" to find ways in which it could forge closer links with community groups.

He said that his party would favour action by local organisations rather than "reliance on direct state intervention".

"Conservatives will place our trust in communities, strengthening the people-sized institutions that can give personal help to people at times in their life when they are most vulnerable," Duncan Smith said on Tuesday.

He pledged to listen to charities and community groups about the problems they face, to work with them at a local level, and to help the voluntary sector to gain access to projects run by the state.

And he promised a "radical review" of funding for the voluntary sector.

"We want public money to flow to more diverse, innovative and locally-based projects," he said.

"Charitable groups are filling the gaps left by government failures. They should not have to ask for grants from bureaucrats who were the architects of those failures."

The party is working to identify ways in which the voluntary sector can expand its cooperation with government, while ensuring that it remains independent from the state.