A third of charities say they will cut roles for paid charity shop staff due to increases in the National Living Wage and National Insurance contributions.

A similar proportion say other cost cutting measures they are planning are reducing hours that staff work. A fifth say they will open fewer hours.

Meanwhile, a quarter believe the increases to the national living wage and employers' National Insurance contributions will see shop closures.

Almost two in five say they are now scaling back their plans to open new shops.

Another action being considered, by more than two thirds of shops, is to raise prices for customers.

“We are of course aware that the government is facing some extremely difficult choices, but it seems a shame that raising money by impacting charities, and specifically charity shops, should be part of their thinking,” said Robin Osterley, chief executive of the Charity Retail Association, which carried out the survey.

“Our survey shows that charity shops, which form such a hugely important part of the circular economy and which provide an invaluable source of inexpensive goods for hard-pressed households, will be severely impacted by these changes, and we are calling on the Government to take steps to mitigate this.”

“The national insurance increase will cost a typical charity shop around £1,000 each year – some of this cost will be recouped through higher prices but ultimately the result will be less money raised to support charitable services.”

Last month charity sector bodies the NCVO and ACEVO wrote an open letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves calling on the government to protect charities from increases in employers’ national insurance contributions.

They estimate this increase will leave to an annual additional bill of £1.4bn for charities.

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