NCVO president Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts believes the Sorp should be shortened and the Trustee Act reviewed, in order to encourage more people to set up charitable foundations.

In a House of Lords debate on philanthropy last week, Lord Hodgson said the government should do more to support wealthy people to establish grantmaking trusts and to encourage philanthropy among 30 to 50-year-olds, “who are probably rather below par in the giving arena”.

He said there were three things the government could do: reduce the bureaucracy of reporting, review the presentation of the Trustee Act, and implement a lifetime legacies or charitable remainder trust scheme.

“The accounting Sorp has expanded year by year and could, and should, be cut back,” Lord Hodgson said.

“We should look at the Trustee Act and laws on diversification, which are more of a concern in theory than in reality, but nevertheless lead people to believe that they may lost complete control of the way their foundation they have established operates.”

He also said that establishing charitable remainder trusts, whereby people can donate money to charity but still receive an income from it while they are alive, would encourage people to be more generous during their lifetime.

Lastly, he said that in order to engage “web-savvy” 30 to 50-year-olds in giving, more creativity was needed to find ways of demonstrating what difference their donations make. He cited the new See the Difference website as an example of such innovation.