Companies limited by guarantee will not be able to apply to become charitable incorporated organisations until after the General Election, the government has confirmed.

This is the second time the government has delayed introducing regulations to allow charitable CLGs to conver to CIOs. It had previously pushed back the introduction of regulations until the end of 2014.

Provisions to allow charitable and non-charitable companies limited by guarantee, community interest companies, and charitable industrial and provident societies to convert to CIO status were include in the Charities Act 2011, but the Office for Civil Society needs to introduce new regulations before organisations are able to do so.

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: “Progress has been made in developing draft regulations to facilitate conversions into the CIO form. Consultation and implementation are not now expected until after the General Election."

No date has ever been confirmed for companies to convert to CIOs, but it was initially widely expected that the process would begin in early 2014. In March 2014 the Charity Commission confirmed that there was a delay and the Office for Civil Society said that it hoped introduce conversion regulations by the end of the year.

At the moment existing unincorporated charities and new organisations can adopt the CIO legal form, which gives an organisation the benefits of charitable status, but also confers limited liability and legal personality without the organisation needing to register with Companies House.

The Charity Commission started registering CIOs in January 2013 and so far more than 3,300 have been established, with almost one-third of new charities opting for this form.

Keith Anderson, a former trustee of an incorporated charity looking to convert to CIO status, said: “The continued delays mean that the charity (which has now been waiting over 3 years) may have to look at revising its articles of association because they are out of date, but this will be costly in both time and legal fees and will not achieve a good solution. This situation must apply to many more charities.
 
“I think that at the very least the Office for Civil Society should publicly explain why there are such delays and where the matter now rests. David Cameron has said many times that he sees charities as a big part of the Big Society and yet this matter just seems to have been kicked down the road.”