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LONDON - A leading Scottish businessman has pledged to donate one billion pounds ($2.6bn) to charity over his lifetime to help good causes in Britain and abroad.
Tom Hunter, who began his business career selling sports shoes from the back of a van and went on to found and then sell a chain of sports shops, said the rich had a duty to spread their wealth to help the needy.
"My own personal belief is that with great wealth comes great responsibility," he told BBC television.
"Therefore you've got to take care of these things if wealth creation is still going to be seen as a positive force by the rest of the population," he added during an interview in the south of France.
Hunter and his wife Marion established the Hunter Foundation in 1998.
It has since donated millions of pounds supporting development projects.
Hunter's pledge came as a leading charity said the gap between rich and poor in Britain had risen sharply and was now the widest in more than 40 years.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said that while the number of people living in extreme poverty may have fallen, the number of people living below the poverty line has increased.
More than one in four households, 27 per cent, were classed as "breadline poor" in 2001, it added.
At the same time the number of asset-wealthy households rose dramatically between 1999 and 2003, with more than a fifth of families, 23 per cent, now falling into this category.
- REUTERS
