Church hits out at Lloyds for axing funding to charity foundation

The Church of Scotland has condemned Lloyds Banking Group after it announced yesterday that it is to cancel its legally binding covenant with a charity foundation.

The bank has handed the Lloyds TSB Foundation a notice to terminate the covenant within nine years.

The foundation has donated some £85 million to Scottish charities in the last 25 years, making it one of the largest grant giving trusts in Scotland.

The Convener of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council, the Rev Ian Galloway, accused the foundation of “shameful” behaviour.

He said that in his own parish in the Gorbals in Glasgow the foundation had forged relationships with those who had received funding and that it had helped them make their existing funds go further.

“It has enabled many in truly dire and unglamorous circumstances to gain confidence in their own abilities and has shown faith in the vision of those people,” he said.

He warned that Lloyds had taken away the opportunity for many poor communities to improve.

“The economic situation has already hurt millions of people who cannot afford to fight back. They haven’t the means to,” he said.

“And now with the destruction of the Lloyds TSB Foundation, salt will be rubbed into the already painful wounds of those affected.

“It is frankly, unacceptable and shameful behaviour from a bank.”

Mary Craig, the foundation’s chief executive, called the bank’s decision “an act of determined vandalism”.

She said: “In breaking the covenant now, Lloyds Banking Group has disowned its heritage and is choosing to ignore the role Scottish communities and their savings played in it being where it is today.”