The UK's top 500 fund-raising charities earned £4.4bn last year - an increase of 11% on 1996.

Most of the extra money came from charity shops, whose income was up 21%, and voluntary donations and legacies, which rose 7%, according to the survey by the Charities Aid Foundation.

Increase from Lottery

Income from other sources fell, however, with grants from Europe and the Government down 7% and 8% respectively.

And while there was an increase in the number of charities receiving money from the National Lottery last year, the average amount given to individual charities by the Lottery fell 364%, from more than £2m each to £465,000.

Oxfam leads the top 10 income list, with a total of £89,188,000, followed by the National Trust, Imperial Cancer Research, the Cancer Research Campaign and the British Heart Foundation, all in the same positions as the previous year.

The only newcomer to the top 10 is the Salvation Army, in sixth place, which earned £61,028,000 last year.

Britain's top 10 charities last year were:

• Oxfam, which received more than £89m to help the needy around the world

• The National Trust, which was handed a total of nearly £85m to look after some of Britain's greatest houses, monuments and landscapes

• The Imperial Cancer Research, which raised £74m to spend on working on a cure for the disease

• The Cancer Research Campaign, which was given £69m for its work to eradicate the major killer

• The British Heart Foundation, which used its £65m for work to prevent heart disease, one of Britain's biggest causes of death

• The Salvation Army, which rose from 11th place in 1996, and was donated a total of £61m for its work with the poor

• The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, down one place from sixth in 1996, which received almost £59m to continue providing its lifesaving service around Britain's coasts

• The children's charity Barnardo's, which was given more than £52m, although it still slipped one place from seventh

• Help the Aged, which received nearly £51m in donations for its work with the elderly. It dropped one place from eighth in 1996

• Scope, which remained in 10th place, receiving £41m in 1997 for its work with people with cerebral palsy