The Church of England will benefit to the tune of £8 million from the Chancellor’s budget.

The Church is one of the charities that has most to gain from Alistair Darling’s announcement that charities can continue to to claim 22 per cent on Gift Aid donations for three year, instead of having it cut to 20 per cent in line with the new rate of income tax.

The Church's National Stewardship Officer, Dr John Preston, said: “I greatly welcome this much needed support to parishes and charities over the next three years.”

He said he hopes that charities and the Government will use the three-year period to work out a simplified system of donations.

The Church and other charities want a new donations system introduced that would boost charities’ revenues by as much as £400 million a year.