Maggie O’Carroll, CEO of The Women’s Organisation in Liverpool, says its crazy the UK’s 170,000 charities have to share £730m when Tesco gets a £585m business rates holiday. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool city regional business leader Maggie O’Carroll is calling for an “urgent review” of the Government’s support package for charities struggling through the coronavirus lockdown.

The chief executive of The Women’s Organisation in Liverpool said the £730m pot announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak was nowhere near enough. She also contrasted this with the £585m business rates holiday being made available to supermarket giant Tesco.

Since last month, Mr Sunak has announced a raft of support measures worth billions of pounds for large and small businesses, and for the UK’s 5m-strong army of self-employed.

However, many of the country’s 170,000 charities have also been hit by a catastrophic fall in income in recent weeks as high street charity shops have been forced to close and fundraising activities ground to a halt.

On Wednesday, Mr Sunak attempted to help plug that gap with a £730m cash injection. Under the scheme £360m will be directly allocated by Government departments to those charities. Another £370m will go to small local charities, including those delivering food and essential medicines and providing financial advice.

The Women’s Organisation, itself a registered charity, has provided support to thousands of women across the city region, in particular those looking to start small businesses. It is also the lead body for the city region’s Enterprise Hub start-up programme.

Ms O’Carroll said she welcomed the extra support for the charitable sector but questioned why the process for claiming the money appeared to be a competitive one. She added: “Why at a time when the third sector is providing vital services for the most vulnerable is the investment forcing them to fight for the resources to do so?

“Many of these charities are very entrepreneurial and use their income to deploy care to the most vulnerable. We are going to see a potential catastrophe in the charitable sector in terms of charities having to close. People won’t have those charities to turn to when vulnerable.”

And she expressed her disbelief that Tesco was able to claim business rates relief at the same time as its sales are soaring and while it is offering its shareholders a £635m dividend payout.

“Tesco effectively gets a £585m grant from the Government through the business rates relief support package and their shareholders are cashing in on the current crisis with a huge dividend payout . Meanwhile more than 170,000 charities get to share £750m .That equates to a little over £4,400 per charity .

“Surely these large companies don’t need this kind of taxpayer windfall when their tills continue to ring and cash is rolling in. Charities are also working on the front line and are left with such limited support and where their income sources have plummeted to zero in many cases.

“It begs the question why on earth did the chancellor include supermarkets, whose stores remain open and popular, in his business rates holiday? There was no need to do so. That decision needs to be urgently reviewed  and those resources reallocated to the charitable sector.”