The falling prices of houses and shares will hit Cancer Research UK, which relies on legacies for about a third of the £400m it raises every year.

“Just as many people are going to give to the charity through their wills,” says Richard Taylor, executive director of fundraising and supporter marketing at Britain’s largest charity by donations received. “But either the value of the assets isn’t what it was or the time taken to realise them isn’t what it was.”