Business of the House

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I was interested to hear of the project referred to by my hon. Friend, and we are anxious to promote regeneration in his constituency. The regional growth fund is on schedule. The first two rounds allocated £1.4 billion, but a new bidding round has opened recently and an additional £1 billion is now available. I hope that projects in his constituency will consider applying for this so that we can regenerate, provide employment and create wealth.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

As a former charities Minister, I am disappointed that we have not heard much from the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, the hon. Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd) about the Government’s position on philanthropy, so may we have a statement from him to give him a chance to stop the traducing of the Chancellor’s reputation on philanthropy, because he has been described as anti-philanthropy despite being the man who has brought us the Budget that just keeps on giving?

[Sir George Young]

The coalition Government are in favour of philanthropy and we have taken a number of steps to promote it. We have made changes to the inheritance tax regime, we have proposals for small donations so that tax can be claimed back, and we are streamlining the mechanism by which charities reclaim tax.

On the specific measure to which the hon. Gentleman refers, he will know that we are having discussions with the charitable sector to seek to protect it from any damaging changes in the proposals that have been announced, which come into effect in a year’s time. There is a serious issue as to whether those on high incomes, who have philanthropic objectives, should be able to exempt themselves from income tax by making substantial donations. In America, which has a good culture, there is a cap on relief, so there is nothing inherently anti-philanthropic in ensuring that those who have high incomes make some contribution to the overheads of the country through income tax.