Marie Curie Cancer Care chief executive Thomas Hughes-Hallett is to chair a new independent review of giving in the UK to try to identify ways of achieving a step-change in levels of philanthropy.

The Philanthropy Review was launched this morning at the offices of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, one of the organisations that will be involved in the review.

Other bodies providing support to the project are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; NCVO; New Philanthropy Capital, the Institute of Philanthropy; JP Morgan; the Pears Foundation, and domestic abuse charity CAADA.

The remit of the review is to “identify key actions and policy changes that will allow the quantity and quality of giving to flourish rather than reduce in a difficult economic climate”.

Giving at every level will be examined, along with all current initiatives that stimulate giving by individuals, corporates and other organisations.

The review intends to present the government with proposals for ways to incentivise giving, to feed into the Office for Civil Society’s own work on boosting philanthropy, set to be unveiled in a Green Paper to be published for consultation shortly.  At this morning’s launch, Hughes-Hallett said:  “Government can act either as an enabler or a barrier to giving.  During the summer, the Prime Minister pledged that this government would foster philanthropy.  Our review will identify practical recommendations that will increase the quantity and quality of charitable giving.

“We have to act urgently in the interests of society at large,” he added.

The review panel hopes to deliver its report in late Spril 2011.

Nick Hurd, minister for civil society, welcomed the announcement and paid tribute to the “very credible team” behind it, admitting “it is time for fresh thinking”.  Hurd has already stated that if giving could rise from the current 0.7 per cnet of national wealth to 1 per cent, it would deliver billions more to the sector.

Today’s launch comes just a day after the Funding Commission published its final report recommending that the sector should club together behind a ‘Better Asking’ campaign to improve efficiency and innovation in fundraising.

But none of these ambitions are new – since 2001 initiatives such as the Giving Campaign (2001 to 2004), the Giving Forum (2005 to 2008), and NCVO's 'What do you believe in?' campaign (2009) have tried and failed to shift the needle on the nation’s generosity.