The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024.
The financial statements comply with the Charities Act, the Charity's Constitution and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Re-public of Ireland (FRS102) (updated 1 January 2019).
Accommodation Concern is registered with the Charity Commission. It's principal objectives are the prevention and relief of poverty, need, hardship and distress especially but not exclusively in relation to housing matters, by such means as the Trustees from time to time think fit, across Northamptonshire and neighbouring areas by:
The provision of advice, assistance and support in connection with housing matters whether to tenants, landlords or others;
The provision of education and advice in local schools and other institutions and otherwise generally on homelessness and housing issues.
Public benefit
The trustees are satisfied that the charity meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS102 and acknowledge that the charity complies with Section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 regarding providing a public benefit.
They have referred to the guidance in the Charity Commission's general guidance on Public Benefit when reviewing aims and objects and in planning future activities. In particular, the trustees have considered how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set. The trustees ensure that these activities are carried out for the public benefit by delivering services that are valued by the people we support and enable those with responsibility in the sector to develop and adopt best practice, thereby promoting a transparent and efficiently managed charity that engenders public confidence and trust.
Accommodation Concern met its charitable objectives during the period April 2023 to March 2024 by delivering a diverse range of services to those in poverty, hardship, need and distress in North Northamptonshire and neighbouring areas through the projects outlined below.
Accommodation Concern would like to express its thanks to its partners and funders:
North Northamptonshire Council
Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHFT)
The Tudor Trust
Lloyds Bank Foundation
Faraway Fund
Desborough Town Council
Central England Co-op
Neighbourly/ Sainsburys
Kettering Town Lottery
Housing Support Fund (HSF)
Nationwide
Glasspool
Thomas Brington
C2C Social Action
Spring – Social Prescribers
NNBN (North Northants Business Network)
Wickstead Park
Projects
Advice Plus (funded by the Tudor Trust)
Our Advice Plus funding for an advisor continues to provide a high level of support and advice assisting at least 168 separate service users for a variety of services. Advice was dispensed for domestic violence, abuse, drug and alcohol issues, redundancy, debt, illegal evictions, possession and repossession. This funding was extended for an additional year until June 2024. The Advice Centre remains accredited by the Advice Quality Standard (AQS) and which was re audited and passed with flying colours in October 2023.
Lloyds Bank Foundation
We continue to work closely with Lloyds Bank Foundation who have provided an amazing amount of additional support throughout the year. The charity has benefitted through their Enhance programme which includes: coaching, workshops and consultant support to the trustees.
Supported Accommodation
The Supported Accommodation project was set up just over eight years ago, The Charity has continued to increase its provision and managing a total of 8 properties.; It leases three, three-bed properties from North Northants council and another five with private landlords. There are plans for at least other four due to come on stream in the year 2024/25. All of these provide intensive housing support for single homeless people.
The service is overseen by our Operations Manager along with a dedicated Tenancy Team Leader who ensure all the properties are compliant, manage the staff team and assess all new referrals to the service. Due to the growth and demands on the service a full time compliance/Maintenance officer and Administrator have been recruited to support the Tenancy Support Team.
Plans are to continue to grow this provision as we look to expand across the North Northamptonshire. We currently have one property in West Northamptonshire and are keen to also develop this provision.
Rough Sleeper Initiative properties (Funded by NNC through the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities, and Local Government (MHCLG)
We continue to have excellent relationships with the Rough Sleeper Outreach team and work closely to support for those sleeping rough across North Northants.
We currently have 6 self-contained one bed properties provided by NNC used for our rough sleeper initiative (RSI) Housing First model of accommodation. These flats provided intensive housing support for entrenched rough sleepers who have limited options available to them due to their poor housing history, addictions, debts and lack of engagement with agencies. We have seen amazing success with this cohort resulting in several now being ready to move on to their own long term accommodation.
Food Redistribution project and Food Bank Distribution point activities
We continue to provide a distribution point for the KCU Trussell Trust Food Bank in Kettering for those in need of food support giving out over 600 parcels this year.
We received funding from the various Household Support fund (HSF) initiatives locally that meant we could continue our partnership with Huggg; enabling us to issue over 430 grants/vouchers for supermarkets and utilities which have been a necessity whilst people have been struggling with the increased gas & electric costs.
Advice Centre
Our Advice Service Manager has been key in supporting the service to grow, whilst continuing to oversee the whole service, ensuring all the services are compliant with AQS & FCA standards, and managing the staff team and volunteers and was successfully promoted to Operations Manager following our restructure in September 2023.
This restructure enabled the charity to ensure it was fit for purpose in the coming years with the infrastructure and business support in place to manage a growing number of frontline staff needed to meet the ever growing demand for our services.
The NHFT contract provides housing, debt and benefit advice to patients of NHFT across the whole of Northamptonshire (both North & West) and continues to have an advisor present at every Mind Crisis café across the county. This year the charity supported over 1050 clients this year through this funding stream.
Desborough Town Council continues to provide funding for a satellite advice service in Desborough on a Thursday afternoon, which provides a service to the local people who would struggle to access the office in Kettering.
We continue to see an increase in demand for advice services and are working with other local organisations to ensure everyone needing support is able to access it.
This year saw our first Quiz & Winter Sleep Out fundraiser event with 100 attendees and 20 people braving the cold night. This successful event, held at Wickstead Park raised over £8,000 and will be repeated next year!
Total Outputs
Over the year, the core team supported 3295 service users with a total of 3870 issues (a 125% increase on last years numbers. This support was in the form of both face to face and remote advice sessions, visits, video and telephone calls, e-mails and letters.
The work was undertaken by the paid staff team working 33,640 hours and the gift of 2,277 volunteer hours.
We submitted 253 charity applications for clients enabling £19,000 of for white goods to be obtained
Our Debt centre supported 372 people to have £587,043 worth of debt written off including £558,173 in approved Debt Relief Orders. We now have two qualified in-house Debt intermediaries.
We submitted 1,242 benefit claims/appeals resulting in £1,419,590 of benefits being awarded to clients.
The combined projects enabled clients to obtain financial gains of £2,216,950 (income and benefits) to which they were entitled.
This has been a busy year learning embedding new ways of working to be responsive the needs of those seeking our help, especially as we are seeing more in-work poverty and to negative budgets with our the usual income maximisation solutions being available. The cost of living crisis continues to affect everyone whatever their background or income,15% of our clients reported having no disability and around 20% reported to currently being in work.
The Charity's total income increased from £691,293 in 2022/23 to £972,374 in 2023/24 (an increase of 41%).
The Charity continued to keep expenditure to the minimum, increasing in line with the growth of the charity from £644,727 in 2022/23 to £953,649 in 2023/24.
The Charity made a surplus of £18,725 in 2023/24 compared to a surplus of £46,566 in 2022/23. The Charity's reserves increased from £115,311 at the beginning of the year to £134,036 at the end of the financial year.
At present the Charity's finances are sufficient and a full review of every project produced a slight surplus budget for the next financial year. The Charity has and will continue to focus on its strengths, review ongoing costs and commitments and identify new opportunities as they arise.
Reserves Policy
The Charity needs reserves to ensure expenditure commitments can be met as they fall due. The Trustees’ aim is to retain reserves in available cash of £150,000. This policy is reviewed annually to ensure that it remains proportionate and reasonable.
Risk Management
The Trustees have considered the major business and operational risks which the Charity faces and confirm that systems have been established so that necessary steps can be taken to lessen these risks. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jo Moore, has reviewed all the Health & Safety and HR processes and appointed Croner to oversee this on behalf of the Charity.
The office provision remains fit for purpose and meets H&S regulations. Staff continue to work from the office base (or delivery site) and/or home having implemented a hybrid working pattern.
The Trustees continue to meet regularly and carefully consider the risks of any new projects. The trustees responsible for HR, Finance and Governance continue to support the CEO in the oversight of these areas.
The Charity plans to consolidate its continued growth this year, whilst investigating in ensuring it has the infrastructure (Business units) in place to under pin and support a charity of this scope, remit and size.
The priority areas of focus remain to deliver a high quality, accredited Advice Centre offering Housing, Debt & Welfare Benefit Advice alongside the practical opportunities of also delivering high quality supported accommodation and RSI intensive accommodation to those homeless people in need.
Accommodation Concern is a registered charity, regulation no 1146257.
Accommodation Concern is the working name of Accommodation Concern a company limited by guarantee, company no 07945758.
Charity registration date - 6 March 2012.
The governing document is the Articles of Association incorporated on 10 February 2012.
The control of the charity rests with the trustees whose names are shown below.
The business of the charity is conducted by the chairperson and the trustees. The trustees meet on a regular basis to administer the affairs of the Charity.
Recruitment and Appointment of Trustees
The Charity has a policy of recruiting new Trustees to add to the diversity of the current Board to include individuals from business, politics and practice and will be appointing more Trustees at this year's AGM.
The trustees report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Accommodation Concern (the charity) for the year ended 31 March 2024.
As the trustees of the charity (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (the 2006 Act).
Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the charity are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). In carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.
Since the charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or
the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
the financial statements do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
the financial statements have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached.
Expenditure on charitable activities
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.
All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Accommodation Concern is a public benefit entity and a private company limited by guarantee, registered in United Kingdom and a registered charity in England and Wales. The address of the registered office is 1 Meadow Road, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN16 8TL, United Kingdom.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the Charities SORP "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (effective 1 January 2019). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.
Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
As a charity, Accommodation Concern is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within Section 478 of the Corporation Taxes Act 2010, or Section 256 of Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992. No charges have arisen.
Contributions to defined contribution plans are recognised as an expense in the period in which the related service is provided. Prepaid contributions are recognised as an asset to the extent that the prepayment will lead to a reduction in future payments or a cash refund.
When contributions are not expected to be settled wholly within 12 months of the end of the reporting date in which the employees render the related service, the liability is measured on a discounted present value basis. The unwinding of the discount is recognised as an expense in the period in which it arises.
Lease payments are recognised as an expense over the lease term on a straight-line basis. The aggregate benefit of lease incentives is recognised as a reduction to expense over the lease term, on a straight-line basis.
Limited by guarantee
The company is limited by guarantee. Each of the members has agreed to contribute to the assets in the event of a deficiency on winding up of an amount not exceeding £1.
In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
Charitable Income
Charitable Income
Income from Tenants - Housing Benefit
Expenditure on charitable activities
Expenditure on charitable activities
Unrestricted Funds
Premises costs
Legal and professional
Finance costs
Activity resource costs
Advertising & website
Communications and IT
Cleaning
Utilities
Travel and subsistence
Independent examination fee
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 or section 252 of the Taxationof Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects.
The amount recognised in income or expenditure as an expense in relation to defined contributions plans was £9,635 (2023 - £6,204)
At the reporting end date the charity had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, which fall due as follows:
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2023 - £nil).
The charity had no debt during the year.