Minister for civil society Nick Hurd has this morning heard from a group of sector leaders about how the proposed tax relief cap will impact on charitable giving.

The roundtable, organised by Acevo, was attended by Sir Stephen Bubb, CEO of Acevo and his deputy Peter Kyle; Sir Vernon Ellis, chairman of the British Council and of the English National Opera; David Bull, CEO of Unicef UK; Ciarán Devane, CEO of Macmillan Cancer Support; Eric Thomas, vice-chancellor of Bristol University, and Sarah Woolnough, director of policy and public affairs at Cancer Research UK.

They made clear “in the strongest terms” their view that tax relief on charitable donations should be exempted from the proposed cap.

They said the cap would counteract the government’s previous initiatives to encourage a culture of philanthropy, and produced several examples showing that some donors are already reducing their contributions in the wake of the Budget announcement.

But Hurd, tweeting immediately after the meeting, was careful not to promise anything.  He simply wrote: "Many thanks to #Acevo for organising a very good roundtable on budget and concern about impact of relief cap on giving."

Peter Kyle, meanwhile, tweeted: "Wasn't all talk, it will lead to action."