Volunteer centres are struggling to pull in funding, according to NCVO, with 63 per cent of those that responded to an annual survey reporting a fall in income last year.

NCVO chief executive Sir Stuart Etherington will use a speech today to criticise the leadership of the Charity Commission and warn that it has lost the respect of the sector over the Cup Trust scandal.

Individual giving to charities increased by £945m in 2010/11, but the voluntary sector on the whole barely managed to grow in real terms as inflation ate away at minor improvements.

Chief executive of Acevo Sir Stephen Bubb has called for charity leaders to focus “unstintingly” on the impact of their organisations, warning that failing to do so will create a new breed of lumbering "zombie charities".