Most generous man in Britain

The former Ultraframe boss today said he was thrilled to be top of the a table of Britain's most generous charity givers.

Mr Lancaster, who recently stepped down from the Clitheroe company, last year gave away £6.5million, nearly seven per cent of his estimated £95million wealth last year.

That is nearly three per cent more than second-placed Sir David Garrard, who gave away £2.5million of his £62million wealth, with supermarket magnate Lord Sainsbury trailing in 16th place after giving away £23.6m, less than two per cent of his estimated £1,500m wealth.

Speaking from his Switzerland home where he lives with his wife, Mr Lancaster said: "I'm thrilled and more than happy to be named the most generous man in Britain!

"Rosemary and I started our registered charity in Clitheroe from finance raised from the sale of our shares in Ultraframe, enabling us to make major capital donations to charities. The charity's a major part of our lives we take an active role in visiting and encouraging most projects we support."

The couple have funded three air ambulances and an operations hangar in South Africa, a pioneering Aids village in South Africa, a resource centre run by the Salvation Army in Soweto, a TB clinic and school for the deaf in Somaliland, an operations centre and two double-decker education buses in Manchester, Dudley Saltmine Arts and an inner-city resource centre in Liverpool.

In Clitheroe, the couple have backed the refurbishment of the Grand Cinema into a youth arts centre and the redevelopment of Clitheroe Skate Park.

Mrs Lancaster and Jill Farthing, who works for the Lancaster Foundation, recently officially opened the Lancaster Hangar at Lanseria International Airport. The hangar, operated by the Mission Aviation Fellowship, will be the operational headquarters staffed by 40 personnel for more than 100 aircraft on relief and medical assignments.

The Lancasters also purchased three medical aircraft offering emergency aid to mothers and babies in 1000 square miles of Swaziland and Botswana.

Mr Lancaster launched Ultraframe in 1983 from a unit in Duck Street,Clitheroe, with a workforce of two, and masterminded its growth into the world's largest supplier of conservatory roofing systems, now employing over 500 at sites in Salthill and Lincoln Way, Clitheroe.

The couple are committed Christians and attend St James's Church, Clitheroe. They divide their time between homes in Clitheroe and Switzerland.