The chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council has raised concerns about the impact on Jewish fundraising of the government's planned cap in tax relief claimed by charitable donors.

In Wednesday's Budget Chancellor George Osborne unveiled changes to the system that allows higher-rate taxpayers who donate to charity to reclaim some of the tax they would have paid, with some of it going to the charity.

But from April 2013 the amount they will be able to claim back will be limited annually to £50,000, or 25 per cent of their income. Mr Osborne said: "To make sure that those on the highest incomes contribute a fair share I am introducing a new cap on those reliefs that are currently uncapped."

The JLC's Jeremy Newmark warned that this could have "potentially serious implications for those charities which benefit from very large donations".

He said the JLC had convened an urgent meeting with its members to examine the possible fallout. "We suggest that the government needs to explore this further with charities," said Mr Newmark. "It's an emerging picture but it certainly doesn't look like good news for the Jewish charitable sector."