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Finance Bill

I welcome much of what the hon. Gentleman says about the importance of looking at a balance that achieves protection for the most vulnerable, but one problem with increasing the burden on charities is that it feeds through to the most vulnerable because they are, of course, their client group. Many charities will be either unable or reluctant to pass on to their service users the consequences of this VAT rise, so they are likely to eat into their own reserves, weaken their own financial standing and, ultimately, get hit with the additional whammy of finding it more difficult to attract funding from other sources, including those in the public sector. That will reduce their impact—their very good impact—on the most vulnerable in society.