WWF UK’s income rose from £60.8 million to £67.6m, accounts for the year to 30 June 2018 show

New corporate sponsorships and a large legacy have led to an increase in an environmental charity’s income.

WWF UK’s income rose from £60.8 million to £67.6m, accounts for the year to 30 June 2018 show.

This is a jump of 10% and the second highest total in the charity’s history.

Powering the growth has been corporate partnerships with Sky and HSBC, and a large legacy of £3.3m.

The charity’s accounts for the previous year showed that its income had fallen by 13%, partly because of a fall in legacy income.

Expenditure in 2017/18 fell from £63.2m to £62.4m, the latest accounts show.

A spokeswoman for WWF-UK said: “We are delighted to have had a successful year in fundraising.

"This was greatly aided by a £3.3m legacy to support our tiger conservation work and our continuing partnerships with HSBC and Sky, which will help to fund our freshwater and marine programmes.

"We also benefited from two People’s Postcode Lottery promotions totalling £5.2m."

Tanya Steele, the charity’s chief executive, continued to receive the highest salary paid by the charity, of £137,714.

The accounts say that the executive team rose from four to seven in 2017/18, with the employee benefits for the executive team almost doubling, from £591,171 to £1.1m.

The charity spent £175,000 on redundancies and the number of high earners – those paid more than £60,000 a year – increased from 18 to 32.