Contact us
Visit CPRE.org
Donate
Leave a gift in your will
Remember Lancashire’s countryside with a gift in your will and let it live on.
We need to protect, nurture and cherish our countryside so it can thrive in the future – both for nature and for all of us who value and rely on it for our happiness, homes or livelihood. Leave a gift in your will to CPRE and you’ll help Lancashire’s countryside now and in the future.
How to enhance and protect the countryside with a gift in your will
It’s easy to leave a gift in your will and you can always change your mind. Just let your wishes be known to your solicitor when you make or update your will, and give them these details:
- Charity name: CPRE Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester
- Charity number: 1107376
About three quarters of the money we use to protect the countryside comes from legacies. Our campaign work to protect the beauty of the local landscape owes much to the generosity of past members.
How your gift could help the countryside
Alongside helping us battle inappropriate Green Belt developments, funds from legacy gifts go towards countryside-focused campaigns such as pushing for brownfield sites to be recycled, hedgerows and peatlands restored, valuable farmland preserved, and local communities given a say on what gets built.
Recent successes in partnership with local communities include:
- Creating the GM Ringway, a 200 mile walking trail passing through every Manchester borough and giving access to green space and nature.
- Stopping the bulldozing of the lovely Rimrose Valley.
- Halting the development of a holiday lodge site in the Forest of Bowland.
Our promises to you
- We’ll always treat you and your wishes with respect and confidentiality.
- Your legacy will be in capable hands. We’ve been successfully enhancing, promoting and protecting our beautiful countryside since 1931. We’ll continue to work in your name for many more generations.
- We appreciate will gifts of any size, and we’ll use our expertise to ensure your legacy will make a lasting impact.
- If you choose to let us know about your gift we can stay in touch and keep you informed of our plans, events and the work we do.
- If you have any queries about leaving a gift in your will to CPRE, our staff will always be available to answer your questions honestly and openly.
Reducing inheritance tax with a charity legacy
With personal pension pots becoming liable for inheritance tax from April 2027, inheritance tax (IHT) considerations will affect more people. If your estate will qualify for the tax, leaving a gift to charity will ensure more of your money goes to causes you care about.
Inheritance tax rules
You don’t pay IHT on gifts to a spouse/civil partner.
You only have to pay IHT on assets above the IHT threshold. This is £325,000 per person, rising to £500,00 if the estate includes a home that you are leaving to a direct descendant (as long as your estate is worth less than £2 million). If you’re married or in a civil partnership, your allowance passes to your spouse/partner when you die. This means couples with a shared home can leave up to £1m without paying IHT.
Amounts above the threshold are liable to 40% IHT. But all gifts to charity are exempt from the tax. And if you give 10% of your estate or more to charity, the tax payable on the rest is reduced to 36%.
Here’s an example from The Times (14 December 2024):
”An estate worth £2 million including a home left to children would face tax on £1 million of its value after full allowances were taken into account, which at 40 per cent would mean a bill of £400,000.
If that estate included a 10 per cent £200,000 charity gift, then £800,000 of the estate would be subject to IHT at 36 per cent, giving a bill of £288,000, so the donation would cost the estate only £88,000.
So in this example the liability for IHT has been reduced by £112,000 by making a £200,000 gift in the will to charity”.
For more information on how this works, see Inheritance tax: thresholds for 2025/26 – MoneySavingExpert
Note – this information reflects our understanding of the IHT rules as at 24th April 2025 and is not formal financial advice.
Contact us for further information
To discuss the possibility of leaving a gift in your will to CPRE Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester, please contact info@cprelancashire.org.uk or call 01772 378831.
