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SPEECH BY PAUL BOATENG MP, FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY, AT THE GIVING CAMPAIGN LAUNCH - 19^TH JULY 2001

Good Morning,  [thanks to Joel Joffe for introduction]

Before I begin, I would like to thank everyone here today – we are all enthusiasts for the voluntary sector. Many thousands of people make a contribution to our community through voluntary giving. It is their efforts and dedication that transforms how we do things to help the needy. It is these people who help us tackle the problems in our community. So I am very happy to continue working with charities in my new post as a minister, and delighted to be associated with the Giving Campaign.

I believe the Chancellor put it very well when he said:

“There is a strong moral basis for the principle of voluntary action.  Voluntary action is an outlet for our natural altruism.  It is the expression of an active community and as such a central ingredient in civic society.  It is part of a protective shield for the individual against the might of the state.  It is a source of social cohesion.”  ...

That is where our commitment to the voluntary sector lies – because it is fundamental to our vision of society. There are 400,000 voluntary organisations and millions of volunteers in Britain.  Our aim is to help build a vibrant and thriving voluntary sector, transforming the relationship between the individual, the community, and the state. The creation of a new partnership between individuals, communities and government is at the heart of recent government initiatives: Sure Start, Healthy Living Centres, New Deal programmes and IT learning centres. The responsibility to run services, and control over the direction they take, is being devolved from the state to local partnerships. Our vision is of making our country a community of communities, where people reach out to help one another.

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But if voluntary and community groups are to play a full role in our society of the future, we need to help reverse the long-term decline in giving this country has seen over recent decades, and we need the voluntary sector to grow bigger, stronger and more confident. Volunteering has a long and justifiably proud tradition in this country. We want to build on that tradition and create an effective partnership between the state and the voluntary sector. So we have been working to strengthen and empower the voluntary sector, with changes to the taxation of charities, and campaigns to build a culture of giving - of time as well as money.

We have introduced the Getting Britain Giving package - measures to encourage charitable donation which are worth an estimated £400 million a year in tax relief to charities, and could generate an extra £1 billion a year in donations. We have improved the Gift Aid scheme, abolishing the minimum limit for relief, so charities can use Gift Aid to maximise their donated income, and we have reduced the burden on charities of administering Gift Aid. With Payroll Giving, we have a scheme that makes giving to charity easier and more effective for employees and abolishing the maximum limit on donations should make it more attractive to those on higher salaries. We have also introduced a generous income tax relief for giving shares to charity.

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In May, the Chancellor, along with David Blunkett, Charlie Falconer, and myself, launched a comprehensive, cross-government package of measures to boost the voluntary sector and build stronger communities. These measures will increase communities’ capacity to run their own affairs, provide extra funds for voluntary groups, extra support and training for charities, and change the way charities and voluntary groups are funded,  to reduce the burden of administration, and give charities and voluntary groups greater independence in handling funds on behalf of government. The package will mean an extra £130 million for voluntary and community groups. 

As well as strengthening the finances of voluntary and community groups, we want to strengthen and encourage the base of volunteers on which they depend. In particular, we recognise the important role played by older people and trustees in voluntary groups. Older people make a crucial contribution to volunteering, and their experience is a great asset to communities and voluntary groups, so we are widening the opportunities for older people to continue to play an active role, and working to help voluntary groups make the best use of their experience and commitment.  And we are launching a project to improve the recruitment, retention, and support of charity trustees; something I do think is a very important piece of work.

The work being done by the voluntary sector through the Giving Campaign will make a significant next step towards building a real culture of giving - to achieve higher giving by more people for the benefit of the whole sector. It is important that this is an independent campaign, led by the voluntary sector and not the Government. We have learned that in many areas, Government needs to give power back to local groups and volunteers if it wants to see the outcomes we all hope for. That is why I cherish the work of this campaign – giving the capacity to build on what has been done, giving the opportunity to pass power back to groups and volunteers.

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The Government has a role to play – lending financial support and seconding staff, but the campaign is an equal partnership between the Government and the third sector. The campaign is able to draw on the expertise of people from within the voluntary sector who know why people do, or do not, give to charity, and about the opportunities to encourage giving. And we are very fortunate to have such a distinguished Chairman, and to have people like Nick Young involved with the campaign. The campaign is a good example of the sort of relationship the government wants to build with the charity sector.

The research which is being published today shows some encouraging trends, in particular signs of a reversal in the decline in the average amount being given to charity. The Giving Campaign offers us all – charities, government, private sector – an opportunity to work together to promote giving; and today’s research shows that there are a number of major opportunities, where the campaign can make a significant contribution to reversing the decline in giving:

• There is great potential to encourage more, and larger donations from the better-off, including through gifts of shares.
• There is room to bring many more companies, and their employees, into payroll giving schemes, and build a stronger culture of corporate, as well as personal giving;
• We need to develop a stronger culture of giving among young people, where the recent decline has been especially severe;
• And we need to increase the public’s confidence in charities, and in how their donations will be used.
• Finally, we need to make giving more tax efficient

From my point of view at the Treasury, the Giving Campaign has an important role in promoting better awareness and more use of the tax benefits that are now in place. Awareness of these benefits is increasing - from 43 per cent in July 1999, to 54 per cent this March - but almost half the population is still not aware of these tax-efficient ways of giving; something that I believe is truly amazing. 

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Initially, the campaign will focus on helping charities make full use of Gift Aid. I know that promoting tax efficient giving can have a significant impact on the amounts charities raise: Children in Need has raised £1 million in a single night, and Christian Aid has estimated that tax-efficient giving during Christian Aid Week brought them an additional £700,000 from donors, as well as a tax reclaim figure of £600,000.  Other charities have had similar successes by using the tax efficient giving, and it is clear that charities have a lot to gain by promoting these ways of giving effectively.

But of course, tax is only part of the picture. We want the culture of giving  we are building to include giving time as well as money, and we want that culture to be one where it is natural for those who can to give their time or their money to help others; and we want to see more people discover the satisfaction and worth that comes from supporting others, and from participating in the revival of civil society.

The Giving Campaign is a vital part of all our efforts to build a strong and independent voluntary sector. It will enable charities to make the most of the opportunities  they have to strengthen the culture of giving, and I wish the campaign every success. I believe this is an exciting time to be working in this field. 

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