Charity Giving

Baroness Pitkeathley Excerpts

Monday 20th April 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the finding in the Charities Aid Foundation’s UK Giving Report 2026, published in March, that the total amount donated to charity by the British public has fallen for the first time in five years; and whether they have any plans to promote a renewed culture of giving in the UK.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Twycross) (Lab)]

This Government are proud of our incredible culture of giving in the UK and are committed to doing what we can to promote and foster it. While the CAF research shows a fall in overall donations, charitable giving has broadly kept up with inflation over the last decade and the proportion of those who give is the same as the previous year. Published last week, the Government’s plan for growing place-based philanthropy, Our Place to Give, will create stronger enabling conditions to strengthen links between donors and places, build better partnerships, and unlock further philanthropy and giving.

[Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that response. The road map that she mentions is indeed an excellent and most welcome initiative to boost place-based philanthropy, and it is much appreciated by the voluntary and community sector. However, the fall in the amount donated is of great concern to charities, which are under increasing pressure to meet growing demands while their incomes are falling. Will His Majesty’s Government consider introducing policies that promote giving, both from corporates and individuals? Examples might be simplifying gift aid, encouraging payroll giving, or indeed anything that might renew the culture of giving, which, as my noble friend said, has always been so central to life in the United Kingdom.

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

It is important that we focus on how we can support an already incredibly generous public, without playing down the reasons why people might be reluctant to give. We are putting in place measures to tackle the cost of living issues affecting people currently. As for some of the ways that my noble friend mentions, HMRC is providing over £2.5 billion of relief through gift aid and higher rate relief, and reviewing current gift aid claiming processes to try to help charities gain as much as they can through that route. I know my noble friend is interested in payroll giving, which 4,000 UK businesses offer. We are actively supporting ways to encourage more people to give. We will continue to work with the sector to ensure that we maximise funding through personal, public and corporate giving.