Jonathan Brinsden, a solicitor at law firm Bircham Dyson Bell, said that the CIO had been hailed as the "holy grail" for voluntary organisations set up as companies limited by guarantee because it would dispense with the need for organisations to register with two regulators.
But he added that charities that are registered as companies should see their administrative workload for Companies House streamlined from this week, when the bulk of the new Companies Act 2006 comes into force.
"The Companies Act is a sophisticated piece of legislation that has been refined over 100 years," he said. "The CIO is an unknown quantity, so it's a case of better the devil you know."
