The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt MP, outlined the Spring Budget 2023 on 15 March.

Reacting to the Budget, CTG’s Chair, Richard Bray, said: “Charities are doing a tremendous amount to support society, particularly at the local level, in these challenging times. The announcement of £100 million of support for charities and community organisations is welcome, although this is targeted support for certain organisations in England. It is also encouraging to see £10 million of grant funding towards addressing mental health and suicide prevention.  But charities throughout the UK are facing a perfect storm of diminishing donations, increasing operating costs and – as the Chancellor recognised – rising demand for their services. Wider support is urgently needed to sustain charities in this challenging environment. It is disappointing that more direct support was not included in the Budget. This was a lost opportunity.  CTG believes that the tax system needs positive change to support charities.”

The following announcements may be of interest to members.

Tax measures:

• UK tax reliefs for non-UK charities and their donors are withdrawn immediately. For overseas charities that qualified for relief on 15 March 2023, they will be able to continue to claim relief until April 2024, in order to give time for them to make appropriate adjustments.
• VAT relief for energy saving materials: The government has published a call for evidence on options to reform the VAT relief for the installation of energy saving materials in the UK. The call for evidence suggests the possible extension of the relief to include buildings used solely for a relevant charitable purpose. Members are encouraged to respond positively to this and question why there is a need to limit relief to buildings solely used for non-business. Why not just for charitable purposes?
• Extension of the temporary higher rates of theatre, orchestra, and museums and galleries tax reliefs for 2 further years from April 2023.
• Ending of Social investment tax relief (SITR): The government has confirmed that it will not renew the SITR, following the end of the previous two-year extension. The SITR will close to any new investments from 6 April 2023.
• Business rates: – The government has published its response to its business rates review. The government intends to expand the local retention of business rates to more areas in the next Parliament and will work closely with interested councils to achieve this. We will continue to campaign for the preservation of charities rates reliefs.
• VAT: fund management reform: Following the consultation on proposed reform of the VAT rules on fund management to improve legal clarity and certainty, which closed in February, the government is considering the responses and continuing to discuss the proposals with interested stakeholders. The government will publish its response to the consultation in the coming months.

Other measures of interest:

• £100 million of support for charities and community organisations in England. Support is targeted at organisations most at risk, due to increased demand from vulnerable groups and higher delivery costs, as well as providing investment in energy efficiency measures to reduce future operating costs.
• Community facilities: £63m fund to be established for public leisure centres and swimming pools.
• A new apprenticeship scheme (“returnerships”) targeted at over 50s for those who want to return to work – will focus on flexibility and previous experience to reduce training length.
• Nurseries: Increased direct funding (from this September) to nurseries.
• Climate change agreement scheme extended for two years.
• Real Estate Investment Trusts: implementation of the Edinburgh reforms to increase attractiveness of regime.