Charity sector leaders have welcomed elements of the budget, including announcements of a consultation on gift aid and digital giving, a new tax relief for social investment and a cut in employers' national insurance contributions.
Charity Finance Group (CFG) chief executive Caron Bradshaw welcomed the announcement that the government would consult on making it easier to add gift aid to online charitable donations, saying: "This will help us to bring gift aid into the 21st century; HMRC representatives also provided reassurance at a sector event yesterday that the new Charities Online system will have the flexibility to deal with such proposals and we are delighted that there is a good level of joined up thought in the Treasury and HMRC on this."
Under current rules, donors must make an individual 'declaration' each time they give online, in order for a charity to receive gift aid on their donation. Under the consultation proposal, online giving platforms could use one single declaration for all their future gifts through that website.
Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), also welcomed the move, saying: "Gift Aid needs to keep pace with the changing ways people give. At a time when charities are struggling financially, anything that cuts down on red tape is good news for charities and the people who give to them."
"In a budget where the Chancellor had little room for manoeuvre, the fact that he has listened to charities on social investment and gift aid reform is very positive.
The announcement of a consultation on a social investment tax relief also received widespread praise. The chief executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) Sir Stephen Bubb said: "By committing to introduce tax incentives for social investment, the chancellor has delivered a diamond in the rough of on-going painful spending cuts. The further cuts will hurt, and it is essential that the government works with charities to deliver services differently rather than attempting to do the same with less. Our sector must be a participant, not an audience, to the upcoming spending review and the big decisions on welfare and spending. But social investment could help charity leaders achieve more against their ambitions, and the chancellor's proposed tax incentives are a welcome step forward."
The chief executive of the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (Navca) Joe Irvin welcomed the impact of a cut in employers' national insurance from April next year but said that the chancellor had "missed a bigger opportunity", saying he "could have demonstrated he understands that as well as providing vital support to communities, local charities and voluntary organisations that can help get our local economies moving. We would have liked to see an investment fund to specifically help micro social enterprise and local charities to generate growth in the poorest areas. We didn't get this and now need to see how the Lord Heseltine's proposal to stimulate the economy by creating local growth deals with Local Enterprise Partnership can be used to support local charities and social enterprises."
New Philanthropy Capital's chief executive Dan Corry, a former senior economic adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said that the budget contained some interesting measure for charities, but added: "The main story is that growth is even worse than we feared, that cuts go on and will be bigger than we thought for 2015/16 as the debt is worse than expected and the deficit still not going down. Beer tax may have come down but for the charity sector it is certainly not the time to crack open the champagne."
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