Acevo is urging government to act on Lord Hodgson’s recommendation to allow charities to pay their trustees, arguing that a ‘substantial minority’ of charity CEOs agree with the principle.

Acevo quizzed 218 charity chief executives on recommendations from Lord Hodgson’s review of the Charities Act 2006 and found 24.8 per cent could envisage their charity taking up the power to pay their trustees over the next five years.

In a letter to minister for civil society Nick Hurd, Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, argues that while most charities do not wish to pay their trustees, the ultimate power to decide should rest with an individual charity, rather than the Charity Commission – which currently decides in most cases.

Lord Hodgson has recommended that charities with an income of £1m or more should have the power to pay their trustees. However, most charity umbrella bodies are firmly against the idea.

Acevo’s survey also found that just under half (48.6 per cent) of charity CEOs supported charging new charities to register with the Charity Commission, however the vast majority (84.4 per cent) were opposed to the Commission charging for the filing of annual returns. Some 36.5 per cent were in favour of levying a penalty if charity accounts were filed late.

Sir Stephen has told Hurd that Acevo would accept a charge for new registrations and a penalty for filing accounts late if both fees were reasonable, but not a charge for the filing of annual accounts.

Sir Stephen also warns against the proposal to abolish National Exemption Orders, arguing it could just hit many larger charities hard, without making life easier for smaller charities.

The government will devise its own traffic-light system to rate Lord Hodgson’s 113 Charities Act review recommendations, to try and identify the “sweet spots” that will impact positively on the sector and are easy to do.