The political landscape that charities operate in looks set to change following the Scottish decision to vote against independence, NCVO has warned.

Before the vote Prime Minster David Cameron announced plans for greater devolution across the whole of the United Kingdom. This morning he pledged to honour commitments to devolve more power to the Scottish Parliament and said that England, Wales and Northern Ireland should also be able to have more say on issues of tax, spending and welfare.

He said that these discussions “must take place in tandem with and at the same pace as the settlement for Scotland”.

Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, said: “Despite the no vote, we can expect to see the political settlement in the UK shift at a rapid pace.”

He added: “Charities will need to be prepared to work with more and more different and new structures in order to represent the causes they work for.”

John Downie, director of public affairs at SCVO, agreed that giving Scotland more control over welfare would mean changes for the voluntary sector.

He said the main priority of was the devolution of welfare powers help to “tackle poverty in Scotland” and that “the voluntary sector is at the frontline of dealing with these issues”.

Downie added that SCVO’s members had seen rising demand for their services in recent years and that by devolving welfare to the Scottish government he expected a “better co-ordinated approach to providing welfare”.

No vote saves charities hundreds of thousands

Because Scotland voted to stay in the UK the 787 cross border charities registered with OSCR will not have to set up separate organisations in Scotland to be able to claim tax relief.

Lawrence Simanowitz, a partner at law firm Bates Wells Braithwaite, said: “The situation where hundreds of cross border charities would need to set up separate organisations has been averted.”

This has saved a considerable amount of money for the sector, he added.

“It’s hard to put a figure on it, but it’s in the hundreds of thousands," he said.

A search of the Charity Commission website shows that there are more than 4,000 charities with "UK" in the name.