'What else shall I do with my money?'

Published on Wednesday 19 November 2003 00:00

BY THE time the great Scots-born businessman Andrew Carnegie died in 1919, he had donated almost all his billion pound steel fortune to good causes, setting a precedent for philanthropy which has rarely been matched.

Yesterday, Carnegie’s extraordinary generosity was recalled as a modern day entrepreneur, reputed to be Scotland’s richest man, signalled his intention to give up to 20 million a year to charity from 2006 onwards.

In an interview with The Scotsman Irvine Laidlaw, 60, a Monaco-based business services tycoon who almost single-handedly bankrolls the Scottish Conservative Party, revealed that in three years time, he will sell the company which has made him an estimated 750 million fortune and turn his attentions, and financial clout, to funding charitable work.

Mr Laidlaw, who was born in Keith, Moray, unveiled his grand scheme, known as the Laidlaw Youth Project, at a conference in Edinburgh with an initial donation of 1 million for charities which help disadvantaged young people leaving local authority care.

There is a catch - defined by the mantra "two plus two equals five". It is this improbable equation which gives a unique insight into Mr Laidlaw’s success and the likely impact he will have on the way the charities he eventually funds are run.

"The sum of two people’s work is worth more than they can do individually, but unfortunately that is not a view that is common in the charity world at the moment, or in government," he said. "It is an equation that works well in business and the Japanese do it best of all, but I don’t see that happening here.

"Everyone has their own little fiefdoms. If charities worked with others, they could make better use of the money and volunteers they have."

Because of these concerns, Mr Laidlaw intends to use part of his outlay to fund charities with projects which bring together two or more organisations - whether that be in health, education, the police or government.

There is a further condition on this largesse. Having the experience of previously "dipping his toes" in charity work by donating money, Mr Laidlaw feels not enough is done to mentor young people once they leave care.

"A lot of young people coming out of care don’t have anyone to turn to. They need support in the long-term, someone to give them encouragement if they lose their home or miss out on a job opportunity - a parent figure. I want to fund organisations that have projects to increase mentoring."

The talk of a parental role for charities is a telling statement by Mr Laidlaw, who admits one of the reasons he intends to be so free with his money is that he has no heirs.

With no-one to leave his fortune to when he sells his company, the Institute for International Research, he will have a personal fortune that not even his taste for vintage racing cars and yachts will be able to dent.

"I have a highly profitable business and that should generate a substantial amount of money when I sell it - certainly a lot more than I can spend myself," he said. "I will have considerable surplus money so what am I going to do with it? I have no children and I would like to use it usefully and I am working out how that can best be done.

"It would be very easy to just give money to the first person that comes around the corner, but that is not the way I work."

Once the initial 1 million is spent, Mr Laidlaw intends to set up a much larger charitable foundation which could give up to 20 million away every year. "That is a realistic figure. I don’t intend to set up a foundation that will carry on for the next 100 years. I want to give away my money while I’m alive."

Mr Laidlaw has forged an unlikely partnership with the Executive, yesterday sharing a platform with Jack McConnell, the First Minister, who has also made improving the lot of children in care a priority.

Executive figures show around 60 per cent of young people leaving local authority care are not in education, employment or training, compared to just 14 per cent in the rest of the population. More than one in five experience homelessness.

Speaking alongside Mr Laidlaw at yesterday’s Vulnerable and Excluded Children and Young People conference at the Roxburghe Hotel, in Edinburgh, Mr McConnell said the Executive would donate 250,000 to the Laidlaw Youth Project and that an Executive official would be seconded to help run it.

"For all that these young people have gone through, the least that Scottish society can do is give them a chance of success and if they don’t make it with their first chance then we must give them another chance," he said.

For his part, Mr Laidlaw has been impressed with Mr McConnell’s openness - although he insists he has no intention of switching political allegiance.

"There is nothing political about this. It doesn’t mean I am going to fund the Labour Party at all," he said. "It is really great that in this instance politics are pushed aside and it doesn’t make any difference that we are in different parties.

"I will continue to fund the Conservative Party because I think we need an effective opposition.You can’t have a government without an opposition and you can’t have an effective opposition without money.

"You could almost say that if the Conservative Party were all-powerful, I might be making sure that there was an alternative opposition."