The Big Society was hailed a success on the first anniversary of the project.

Decentralisation Minister, Greg Clark, visited "pop-up university" The U in the St Nicholas Shopping Centre on Monday to praise Sutton's participation in the scheme, a year after it was chosen as a vanguard.

The Big Society, which asks residents to take a greater role in their communities, has been criticised locally and nationally as a cover for cuts by putting more responsibility on people to volunteer.

Mr Clark said: "On its first anniversary, we can see that the Big Society is clearly working. The reason we were keen to support the vanguard communities, if they did work, other councils could copy it."

Sutton Council leader Sean Brennan accepted many of the 20 "big society" initiatives being run in Sutton already existed to a degree prior to the policy's launch, but he said he believed being a vanguard had encouraged more volunteers to come forward, and allowed the council a direct link to central Government to try and reduce red tape to help set up more innovative projects.

He said: "Life didn't begin with the Big Society. It's about people getting involved in their community in their own time. It's not us driving it, we're working in partnership with local communities."

As a Big Society borough, the council has been given an extra £100,000 by the Government.

The projects set up include tree-planting schemes, back to work clubs, and job sharing groups. It also includes more community involvement in planning major projects and The U, which was set up in a disused shop as part of a £670,000 national grant to train people in news skills.