The number of large charities removed from the charity register has jumped 176 per cent since the start of the financial crisis, reports accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy.

According to Charity Commission figures, the number of de-registrations by large charities (those with a turnover of more than £500,000) has leapt from 96 in 2007 to 265 in 2011 (year to 30 September).
 
Wilkins Kennedy claims that the increase is a result of charities closing down or merging due to the challenging fundraising environment.

It attributes the rise to the lasting effects of the credit crunch and the impact of the government’s austerity measures having hit the two major channels of support to charities: individual donations and local authority funding. The firm says that annual gross income of charities has slowed from 8 per cent year-on-year growth in 2007, to just 2.5 per cent in 2011.
 
Whilst agreeing that charities folding and merging were typical causes for their removal from its register, a Charity Commission spokesperson advised that there is a wider range of reasons:

"These figures – whilst accurate – do not take into account several other factors," she said. "They do not reflect how many charities have joined the register or merged and registered as a new organisation during the same period.

"We also began a programme of proactively removing inactive charities from the programme in 2007, and for that reason we saw a temporary increase in removals.

"Furthermore, a lot of the charities that left the register in 2011 were academies. This reflects the fact that on 1 August last year academies became exempt charities, and were therefore removed from the Register. The Department for Education is now the principal regulator of academies.

"An average of 8000 charities leave our register each year. But, generally speaking, roughly the same number of charities join the register as come off it," she added.