Small Charitable Donations Bill

Ben Gummer Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Ben Gummer (Ipswich) (Con)]

I have been following the Bill with great interest, as have my constituents. It is a pleasure to be here for the Third Reading of one of Her Majesty’s Government’s most progressive measures. I look forward to its being passed from this House imminently.

The most generous people are often those with the least means. If we look at the income distribution of people who give charitable donations, we see that those who give the largest proportion of their income are the poorest. It is unfair that those who are the richest should get the biggest tax break, as it were, in the Government top-up on their donation through gift aid and by the myriad other schemes that we have discussed in this Chamber in the past year, and that people who might give £20 or £15, which would be much more than £50,000 to a rich person, should receive less of an advantage. The Bill, therefore, is a progressive and forward-looking reform of tax legislation, which will help give the same benefit to people who give little amounts of money, which for them is a great deal, as to those who might give a lot and not think so greatly about it.

The Bill is not just good for small donors; it is also good for small charities. In all our constituencies, the people who really pull our communities together are those in the small charities, whether they be churches or charitable groups looking after the disabled, the sick or children. The Bill will make a real difference to those charities, not only because they will get more money from the Government but because it will help bind them to their donors and, importantly, facilitate the sense of community that arises when people give what they can both in time and small amounts of money. It will help to build communities and make them better places. For that reason, I support the Third Reading of this fantastic Bill put forward by Her Majesty’s Government.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read the Third time and passed.