The Conservatives have attacked the race relations "industry" for doing more harm than good.

Oliver Letwin gave a speech on Thursday in which he confronted a top down, one-size-fits-all approach to multiculturalism that prised bureaucracy above voluntary, grass roots activism.

He said that bodies such as the powerful Commission for Racial Equality did not believe in the British people's tolerant attitude towards different cultures and dwelt on tackling imaginary problems rather than celebrating progress.

He also raised his concern for the "Christian heritage" of the country's constitution which he fears is under threat from secularists determined to rob Britain of its heritage.

The shadow home secretary slammed the "we know best" approach of those "at the top of the bureaucratic food chain" for their love of "committees, quangos, targets, initiatives, paperwork, ticked boxes, codes and compacts".

Instead, he praised the work of community organisations such as the "remarkable" Haillie Selassie Peace Project in Handsworth, Birmingham.

They promote Rastafarian cooperation with the local police force, including community officers who patrol streets with and advise the constabulary on sensitive issues.

Letwin said schemes such as these were in danger of folding due to a lack of funds while the culture of taskforces and commissions ate up more and more cash.

He pledged that support for voluntary projects would be a major theme of future Conservative race relations policy.

The CRE was "usurping the proper role of communities", he alleged.

"The same top-down, we-know-best approach is applied to the communal tensions that arise as a result of disempowerment."

"I don't doubt their good intentions, but whether any of this achieves real positive change is open to question."

"I have argued before that we must engage people at the local level and recreate the neighbourly society," Letwin said.

"We will do this only if we recognise that communities are networks of relationships that turn collections of people into responsible individuals."

Turning his attention to religion, the widely admired Dorset MP risked damaging his own liberal reputation further when he defended the central role of faith and Christianity in Britain's national life.

"We can expect an increasingly vociferous campaign to strip our constitution of its Christian heritage - indeed the campaign is already underway," he warned.

"There are advocates of state secularism who propose a 'neutral' non-religious basis for the constitution and institutions of society.

"But can a non-religious worldview ever be neutral? Surely it must embrace values of some sort, otherwise our national symbols would symbolise nothing and provide no basis for unity."