The richest Britons are giving less to charity than five years ago and the majority are giving nothing at all, The Times can reveal.
An analysis of charity donations on self-assessment tax forms shows that nearly two thirds of people earning more than £250,000 gave nothing to good causes last year. In total, almost one million people earning more than £100,000 made no donations.
The figures show that high-earning Britons are giving a smaller proportion of their income to charity than the less well-off. People earning more than £250,000 donated an average of only 1.7 per cent of their income last year compared with 3.1 per cent by those earning less than £50,000.
However, even these figures are distorted by a small number of wealthy