Mary Craig, chief executive of the Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland – which awards millions of pounds to charities – last night revealed it may have to wind down within seven weeks.
Hundreds of Scottish charities stand to lose out as the foundation has made some 12,000 donations worth more than £84m.
The foundation operates under a covenant that it, along with three other foundations in the UK, receives a 1% share of bank profits but the foundation said the group had proposed reducing this to 0.5%. Ms Craig said it would mean charities losing out on £22m in the next nine years.
She said:“We have the money to meet present commitments but, within seven weeks, the foundation will have made what could be its final awards to charities.
“Unless funding is secured for next year by then, the Board will be faced with little option but to wind down the foundation’s operations in Scotland.”
Lloyds Banking Group’s claims that the foundation had refused to enter into negotiations with the bank were dismissed by the
foundation, which accused the company of trying to use charitable funds to benefit the bank.
Mark Ballard, assistant director for policy and influencing for Barnardo’s Scotland – one of the charities which has benefited – said: “Mary Craig is absolutely right to take this stand in order to try to secure the long-term future of the Lloyds TSB Foundation. She has the full support of Scotland’s charities and voluntary organisations.”
The Reverend Ian Galloway, convener of the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland, castigated the bank for “unacceptable behaviour”.
Lloyds Banking Group said: “Lloyds Banking Group has been in discussions with the Lloyds TSB Foundations for England and Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands to agree a proposal which guarantees the Foundations significant funding in the short term and a durable and lasting financial settlement, with their independent status remaining very much in place. We have consistently invited the Scottish Foundation to join these discussions. They have declined to participate.”
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