In June, the Prime Minister asked Danny Kruger MP for proposals to “sustain the community spirit we saw during the lockdown”. Levelling up our communities: proposals for a new social covenant sets out his vision for a more local, more human, less bureaucratic, less centralised society in which people are supported and empowered to play an active role in their neighbourhoods. The report includes a number of recommendations including options to boost philanthropy, including civic crowdfunding, and social investment.

A section on Philanthropy notes: “The wealthy could give more, and the very wealthy could give a lot more. Of those earning more than £250,000, two thirds make no donations to charity whatsoever. We need a better culture of giving. Much could be done with fiscal incentives to give, including changes to the Gift Aid regime and the tax treatment of charitable bequests. I do not make specific recommendations here, though I hope that HM Treasury will engage seriously with the wealth and philanthropy sectors to see how greater philanthropy could be induced through changes to the tax system.”

The report also suggests that “Government should insist that organisations benefiting from public funding or tax relief should publish coherent and comparable data on their activities and outcomes.”  and “Philanthropy could have more favourable tax treatment, creating ‘Giving Zones’ as suggested by New Philanthropy Capital.”

The report also considers how mutual aid groups (such as those set up in response to COVID-19) could be supported or regulated: “One option is for the Charity Commission to create a new ‘probation’ status, with automatic enrolment for any community group that passes basic probity checks, and then a fuller review after, say, two years. The alternative would be a new status within the charity register for small organisations which do not aspire to receive public funds, but which can nevertheless benefit from the tax and other advantages of charity status”. Given concerns about the misuse of charity tax reliefs and division of charity status this would be something that would need to be scrutinised and may not be practicable or desirable.

The report also notes: “HM Treasury is currently considering the future of Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR) along with a number of other tax reliefs and exemptions. If the decision is taken to tidy up the tax system by scrapping SITR, it is vitally important that alternative means are found to grow the social investment market and further the progress that has been made in recent years.”