Dame Caroline Dinenage, Member of Parliament for Gosport, will today warn Ministers that without urgent legislation some of Britain’s best-loved countryside, arts and heritage charities are set to lose millions of pounds.

 In a Westminster Hall debate titled “Government support for Membership-Based Charity Organisations”, Caroline will highlight the lack of Government action to prevent organisations such as the National Trust and English Heritage losing the right to claim Gift Aid.

Due to provisions in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA), charities that offer membership will no longer be able to claim Gift Aid on charitable membership purchases. The purchase of a charitable membership has previously been considered a donation, but mandatory new 14-day cooling off periods have created an inconsistency between HMRC guidance and the DMCCA that membership charities are warning threaten one of their largest revenue streams.

The heads of the National Trust, Tate, Historic Royal Palaces and other organisations wrote to the Prime Minister in July, saying charities must be treated differently to commercial organisations.

Despite the Government signalling its intention to ensure membership charities can continue to claim Gift Aid, the primary legislation that HMRC believes is necessary to resolve the current legal contradiction has not appeared, and there is no sign of it, meaning membership charities fear millions of pounds of Gift Aid revenue may be lost from next year.

Increases to National Insurance Contributions have added over £10 million to the National Trust’s wage bill, causing the charity to implement cost-cutting measures such as cutting jobs and removing homemade scones from site cafes, but Gift Aid is worth £53 million to the Trust. English Heritage have seen a £1.6 million cost increase due to NICs, but the impact of losing Gift Aid on memberships is over 5 times that, valued at around £8.8 million.

Caroline will highlight the already precarious current financial situation for charities, who are seeing fewer people donate time and money at a time when Government tax policies have meant an extra £1.4 billion NICs burden.

Caroline is expected to say in the debate: “Membership organisations play a central role in protecting and enhancing the things that we consider important to our national character…

“Billions of pounds of additional financial pressures have been put on charities at a time when income streams are diminishing.

“The Government has been slow to tweak well-meaning and necessary consumer protection legislation despite the imminent impact of the Act on membership charities’ cash flows…

“Membership charities need a vote of support from the Government now, to remove this albatross from around their necks.”