The social and economic challenges on the new government’s agenda are substantial and pressing. From rising homelessness to diminishing health, the UK faces enormous challenges. As the government sets out to tackle those challenges through the missions it has set for itself, it will need to work with partners across every sector.

Tens of thousands of charities, and an even greater number of community groups and social enterprises, have spent decades dedicated to getting people into good work, providing opportunities to young people, reducing crime, improving health, and saving the environment – the exact priorities Labour have set out. The new government should therefore be looking at removing the barriers which are preventing charities from making the biggest difference possible to those missions.

Constrained charity finances are one of those barriers. In a fiscally restricted environment, the new government will have to think creatively about how it can improve charities’ incomes.

Fortuitously, the wealthiest people in the UK have funds to spare – funds they state they would be willing to put to use making a difference in society. The new government should look to encourage the wealthiest to give away the estimated £2.8 billion extra they may be willing to part with annually for charity. In doing so, they may free up as much capital as it would take to fund their manifesto commitments to provide a mental health counsellor in every school and a hub for young people in every community ten times over.

Action to encourage greater charitable giving by the wealthy would be pushing at an open door: new polling by PBE shows 86% of wealthy people surveyed already give to charity. Action to increase philanthropy would also drive new funds towards Labour’s missions, as the wealthy give significantly to mission-related causes and organisations such as medical research and children’s charities.

One well-evidenced way to drive up charitable giving by the wealthy is to utilise the support of the financial advice sector. Around half of the estimated 5.8 million people in Great Britain with net financial assets of over £100,000 (excluding all property wealth, physical wealth and workplace pensions) have at least one financial adviser helping them to manage their investments and plan for the future. But at present, only 8% of those wealthy people receive any advice on charitable giving.

This is an enormous missed opportunity, because advisers simply raising the topic of philanthropy with their clients has been proved to accelerate giving. Research has shown that when people receive advice on philanthropy, they are significantly more likely to give than those who don’t. And people who have received advice on their charitable giving have been found to donate substantially more. A prompt to consider charitable giving during a financial planning session can lead to clients giving 40% more to charity.

If all wealthy people with a financial adviser also received philanthropy advice, and they either started giving or increased their current giving by the 40% observed in similar behavioural studies, it could generate an estimated £1.1 billion for charities per year.

But a lack of understanding and education about philanthropy is preventing this from taking place. An alliance of accredited bodies, philanthropy advisers and financial advisers are working together with the FCA to develop and distribute training on charitable giving for the financial advice sector. The new government should accelerate this work by mandating that training as part of ongoing CPD, so that all relevant financial advisers receive training on philanthropy in the next three years. The government should also ask the FCA to alter the curricula so that all newly qualified advisers are exposed to the full spectrum of capital.

A rollout of philanthropy advice is the first step the new government should take to unlock greater giving from the wealthiest. In order to put as much of that dormant £2.6 billion to work for good, or to close the £5 billion gap between giving in the UK and that in Canada and New Zealand, a National Philanthropy Strategy is required. But this could be an early win for a government keen to make visible change and deliver progress on its mission.

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