Abbey Business Centres - Charity Donations

Charity Donations

In 2004, Laidlaw said that he would over the next 20–30 years donate most of his fortune to helping disadvantaged Scots. His main vehicle was the Laidlaw Youth Project, which supported a range of charitable work for disadvantaged youngsters in Scotland from 2004 to 2007 when it became the Laidlaw Youth Trust. He has also donated:

• £2million to The Prince's Trust
• After Moray Council earmarked Rothiemay Primary School for closure, Laidlaw donated funds to a parents campaign which successfully kept 21 schools open
• £40,000 to Keith Grammar School, to fund a scheme to help senior pupils prepare for the world of work
• £1,000,000 was given by Baron Laidlaw to Merchiston Castle School his former school; despite having despised attending it, he eventually relented to persuasion by the headmaster and donated this sum. The new sixth-form house at the school, which his donation went some way to financing will therefore be named Laidlaw House.

In 2007, he set up the Laidlaw Youth Trust which from 2007 to 2009 spent over £6million in Scotland on good causes related to disadvantaged children and young people. In 2007, in emerged that the Scottish Executive had given sufficient donations to pay the salary of the CEO Laidlaw Youth project, Maureen McGinn - who is also the wife of Scotland's most senior civil servant, Sir John Elvidge.

In 2008, Laidlow became a sponsor to Excelsior Academy in Newcastle's West End. He donated £30,000,000 towards the construction of the school.

He closed the Trust in 2009 because he was spending more time in South Africa and said he wanted to focus his charitable giving there. It is not known how much he has gifted in his new adopted country but he was involved in some township housing project.