IDS: The "quiet man" fighting from the fringes

The Chingford and Woodford Green MP appeared at Clifford Chance's offices in Upper Bank Street this week for the fourth set of recommendations aimed at reforming Britain's courts, streets and deprived communities.

Speaking to The Wharf at the event, Mr Duncan Smith said: "It's much easier to do things from the outside than the inside.

"I'm more free to say what I feel and don't have to worry about whether people don't like it."

Previous presentations include focuses on street gangs, police reform and prison reform, but Monday's paper tackled the issue of sentencing.

Backed by a 12-strong team of experts including barrister Martin Howe QC, Mr Duncan Smith is calling for an end to sentences under two months, and their replacement with "structured community sentences focused on rehabilitation and treatment for drug and alcohol addiction and mental health problems". These could be followed by prison sentences if breached.

The CSJ claims reoffending costs the UK £11billion a year, about £450 per household.

He said: "Sentences under 28 days are almost completely meaningless.

"They bog down the courts, there's a cost overload and prison numbers have risen dramatically. You need to beef up the community service and incorporate unpaid work into that. Offenders should be made to face up to the results of their crime.

"Nobody gets rehabilitated in prison these days on short sentences. There's just no time, and if you get anything less than six months the chances are nearly zero."

While Mr Duncan Smith also calls for reforms of the benefit system and housing poverty, he admits he was surprised to discover how much of a role debt played in modern-day social problems.

He said: "When we spoke to voluntary sector groups, almost the single biggest reason for families breaking up is debt.

"They don't talk about it, but if you track it back it's the biggest reason. We also borrow the largest amount of money of anybody in Europe.

"The banking crisis isn't just a banking crisis, it's a family crisis. Families were encouraged to borrow and then had the rug pulled out from under them."

Mr Duncan Smith is also keen to see more incentives laid on to encourage young people off benefits and to work, such as an end to oppressive levels of taxation.

He said: "We need to change the way the benefit system works. If you're a young person who's left school, when you go into work you're looking at a net tax rate of over 70 per cent. What incentive is that to go into work? It's illogical."

A key pillar of the CSJ - as revealed in its paper 2007 Breakthrough Britain - is the need to "move people into sustained employment" and "introduce young people to aspiration". As such, it shares the ethos of groups such as charity City Gateway, which encourages Wharf businesspeople to lend their mentoring skills to young people out of education and employment at its youth centre in Limehouse.

Mr Duncan Smith said: "Within sight of this building, if you go out to West Ham and similar places, you'll find a population that can see this building but believe there's not a hope in hell of working in a place like this.

"They've every right to be here, as much as a person from a middle-class background. We need to help support community projects such as City Gateway to convince them that a since of self-worth and self-discipline enables them to study hard and to aim high."

He is currently attempting to use his profile to push the CSJ's proposals for social change to the government. That government could soon be a Conservative one if polls are to be believed. With discontent swirling around the current administration, the mood on the opposition benches is different to the one that Mr Duncan Smith remembers from his time at the helm.

He said: "When I was leader we were in a difficult position.

"We were under the cosh having just lost an election, morale was low and the party was ill at ease with itself. It's very difficult to lead a party that's not interested in being led, but at that stage no one saw there was a need for change."

David Cameron has already looked to adopt several CSJ proposals into his social agenda. So does that mean a key role could be waiting for the former leader if the blues storm Westminster?

He said: "He's mentioned he wants to me to help out, but beyond that we haven't really talked. I'm not going to rush anything."