What could the new government mean for charities and giving?

On Wednesday 28 October, Chancellor John Healey presented his first Autumn Budget, marking the first major fiscal event since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister. While we had hoped to see the proposals we'd submitted to the new government taken forward there was little mention of charities. Rather, there were pockets of funding opportunities for specific causes, including violence against women and girls and homelessness.

Whilst we welcome additional income, thematic-based statutory income will not address the fundamental barriers holding charities back from reaching their income targets. The proposals we outlined focused on growing legacies, enhancing tax incentives to encourage more giving, encouraging wealthy individuals who have the capacity to support causes right now to do so, and ensuring that charities have the skills and tools available to make the most of emerging technologies including AI. Such measures would come at little cost to government but be an important step towards creating a favourable fiscal framework where charities have the opportunity and resources to fundraise independently.

There was one key update in the budget on how the value of estates and pension pots will be calculated for the purposes of inheritance tax, however, more clarity is needed. Remember A Charity has provided an overview of them here.  

Going forward, it is clear more needs to be done to ensure the new government understands how the giving landscape is changing and the implication this has on charities and the impact they can deliver. We will therefore continue to work with sector partners and as a member of the Civil Society Group to ensure members' views are heard and future policy decisions put their best interests first.  

One of Burnham's first decisions was to bring forward the date the DMCCA would come into force from Spring 2027 to January of the same year. We understand that this decision was not to disadvantage any charities whose products may fall into scope of the new law, but to ensure that consumers were no longer caught in commercial subscription traps.

Fortunately, as this has been an ongoing policy priority for some time, we were able to act quickly with the Department of Business and Trade (DBT) to ensure their supporting guidance addressed key areas of ambiguity holding charities back from making the necessary preparations. Members can read more about this here. 

With many charities still looking at how to navigate this new law, we will be producing additional content with our legal partner Bates Wells later this month.