REGISTERED COMPANY NUMBER: 01041946 (England and Wales)

REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 501556

Report of the Trustees and

Audited Financial Statements

for the Year Ended 31 March 2025

for

DURHAM ACTION ON SINGLE HOUSING LIMITED

Page

Report of the Trustees

1

to

9

Report of the Independent Auditors

10

to

12

Statement of Financial Activities

13

Balance Sheet

14

Cash Flow Statement

15

Notes to the Cash Flow Statement

16

Notes to the Financial Statements

17

to

27

The trustees who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006, present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2025. The trustees have adopted the provisions of 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).

Objectives and activities

Objectives and aims

Durham Action on Single Housing Limited (DASH) are a charity that provides accommodation with support to people who are either homeless or are about to become homeless. We provide a small amount of unsupported housing at affordable rents through our Kepier Homes brand and also provide a preventative support service offering County-wide drop-ins, virtual support and outreach support.

We can accommodate up to 55 people in our supported properties for up to eighteen months. Our aim is to provide a supportive and stable environment in order to give people the best chance of addressing the problems that caused their homelessness and thereby an opportunity to move forward into independence.

Our charitable objectives are:

1)

The relief of poverty, in particular by the provision of charitable social housing to people in necessitous circumstances.

2)

To promote the care, education and training of people with a mental or physical disability.

We achieve this through the following activities:

-

The provision of supported housing;

-

A project specifically for women facing multiple complex needs;

-

Enhanced housing management services; and

-

A preventative support service providing drop-ins, virtual support and outreach support.

Our mission:

Everyone, regardless of circumstances, should have a fundamental right to a place of shelter, and help to rebuild their life.

Public benefit

In shaping our objectives for the year and planning our activities, the trustees have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit, including the guidance ‘public benefit: running a charity (PB2)’.

Strategic report

Achievements and performance

Charitable activities

Performance

During the 2024/25 financial year DASH received and accepted a total of 483 referrals, a significant decrease over the 1,132 referrals received last year. The majority of these were for our Harry Mears House, receiving 156, Aurora received 80 with Orion receiving 140. All referrals for these services are now referred through the Gateway operated by the Durham Mental Wellbeing Alliance, which may account for the decrease in referral numbers. The pilot scheme, LUCA, receiving referrals directly had 107 referrals.

33% of referrals were received from the Hospital Discharge Team, with a further 20% from Housing Solutions the Durham County Council Homelessness Team, and 10% as self-referrals. The remaining 37% were from a mix of agencies, Mental Health Teams and Social Prescribers.

The new Health, Housing and Wellbeing Floating Support Service, active from 15 January 2025, received 579 referrals, of which 505 were accepted. The majority of these, 63%, were self-referrals via telephone or drop-in, with 35% from advice agencies and 14% from Health-related agencies.

Resources

The Hospital Discharge Scheme has been extended to include an additional 5 properties and will now run until January 2027. Feedback from Durham County Council on the scheme so far has been good and we hope the scheme will be extended from a pilot into a fully funded commissioned service.

With the staffing review completed, we were successful in a tender bid for a Housing, Health & Wellbeing Floating Support Service, named the WellNest Service. The contract went live in January 2025, involving a TUPE of staff, and was very quickly fully operational. This involves operating a number of drop-in sessions across County Durham and providing options for virtual and outreach support. Assistance can be provided around form filling, advocacy, help claiming appropriate welfare benefits and helping to achieve goals and ambitions in training, employment or volunteering.

During the year we continued to review our systems and this led to the decision to upgrade the Client Record Management system. The migration onto the new system was completed before the end of the year and all staff have received training on this system. As well as assisting to maintain up-to-date systems, utilising current security features, we hope to be able to more accurately capture outcomes residents have achieved, and the support time that each resident has received.

Fundraising and donations

Funding was received from the Shakespeare Temperance Trust, Neighbourly Sainsburys and TKMaxx Homesense. We continued to spend funds from Barbour Foundation, and Hedley Foundation.

In total we received £6,464 in donations. Donations were received from Durham University, including a number of events and colleges plus Full Score, St Brandons Church, and St John's Church Neville's Cross along with a number of individuals.

Financial review

Principal funding sources

The charity has two primary sources of revenue income.

Firstly, the rents and service charges which we charge to the residents of both our supported accommodation, and our unsupported accommodation. As most of our accommodation provision is supported, the majority of our rental income is paid via Housing Benefit. The remainder is paid direct by residents or via Universal Credit.

Secondly, we receive funding from Durham County Council, through Commissioning Services relating to Adult Services, which helps us to provide tailored support to our vulnerable residents.

We also receive a modest amount of funding through donations.

Financial Risk

Our two primary sources of funding, as detailed above, are not guaranteed long term and both face some financial risks.

Our Durham County Council funding for our supported housing contracts has been renewed until 31 March 2026. Beyond this it is not yet known what contracts may be on offer, which potentially has a significant impact on the level of support that we would be able to provide. We also have a three-year contract to provide a Housing, Health & Wellbeing Floating Support Service with options to extend for a further two years, providing a level of guaranteed income for the next few years.

Support is offered to our residents to make regular payments towards their rent and service charges, however there will inevitably be occasions whereby a resident leaves whilst in arrears. A proportion of bad debts are written into our business plan in recognition that money management is a frequent support need for people who are unable to manage an unsupported tenancy; this will continue to be carefully monitored to ensure figures remain at a manageable level.

Investment policy and objectives

The Charity retains its surplus funds on deposit with a number of banks and organisations. The aim is to spread funds across institutions to minimise the risks from any individual organisation.

Although some money is held within fixed term investments, we ensure that enough reserves are available at relatively short notice so that the charity can take advantage of any suitable opportunities should they arise, including the purchase of further rental accommodation to expand our existing portfolio.

Reserves policy

The management committee has examined the charity's funding requirements for working capital and in the event that it could not continue its activities, it considers that unrestricted free reserves, relating to six months running costs, of £1,052,136 need be set aside to cover existing obligations on a forced closure basis.

Although the reserves currently stand at £2,048,093 a proportion of this relates to freehold property. The net book value of freehold property as at 31 March 2025 is £1,091,594 which would not be easily convertible into cash to pay the operating costs for the charity in the short term.

Value for Money

We recognise that if we want to deliver our strategic aims we need to create a balance of cost, quality and benefit to our residents and business across all our services. By ensuring that everything we do is as effective and efficient as possible, any capacity within our resources can be reinvested into services to further our charitable objectives helping additional people in need.

Benchmarking is important to any business. It provides key comparisons with similar organisations, enabling understanding of strengths and weaknesses and underpinning an evidence based approach to resource allocation, cost reduction and target setting. The organisation's operating costs and key financial indicators will be benchmarked annually using a variety of sources, including data from the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) Global Accounts.

We have also carried out a review of the Housing Sector Scorecard and where we stand in relation to the results for 2024/25. This scorecard is split up into five themes:

-

Business Health - This demonstrates how we are meeting the challenge of running successful businesses while fulfilling our social mission.

-

Development - Capacity and supply - This demonstrates the capacity of the organisation to develop new homes.

-

Outcomes Delivered - This measures the services delivered to existing tenants.

-

Effective Asset Management - This is how the organisation looks after the assets we manage.

-

Operating Efficiencies - This demonstrates how we deliver value for money through our strategic and operational choices.

In April 2018 a new Value for Money Standard was introduced by the Regulator, along with a sector wide set of metrics which aids direct comparison between housing providers. These metrics are included within our key performance indicators below and are denoted with a *.

Business Health

2023/24

2024/25

Quartile 1

Median

Quartile 3

Quartile Performance

Operating margin (overall)*

-64.16%

4.11%

12.00%

18.20%

23.00%

Bottom

Operating margin (social housing lettings)*

-64.16%

4.11%

14.50%

19.80%

25.50%

Bottom

EBITDA MRI (as % interest)*

N/A

N/A

88.7%

128.4%

169.3%

N/A

*EBITDA MRI : Earnings before Interest Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation - Major Repairs Included

As a small specialist supported housing provider we expect to incur higher costs than other providers and therefore attain a lower operating margin. We ramped up our program of maintenance last year, following some covid related delays to planned maintenance reducing our operational margins for that year. This year sees a return to more usual levels. As we do not have any loans currently the EBITDA metric is non-operable.

Development (Capacity & Supply)

2023/24

2024/25

Quartile 1

Median

Quartile 3

Quartile Performance

Units developed (absolute)

3

0

New supply delivered %*

16.00%

0.00%

1.00%

1.40%

2.20%

Bottom

Gearing %*

N/A

N/A

34.10%

45.60%

54.30%

N/A

We purchased a property last year, which although small in absolute terms is proportionally significant for us. We do not currently have any loans and as an organisation prefer to finance developments through other sources of funding where possible and appropriate. As a small specialist supported housing provider, we have a smaller asset base to set against any loans and a lower operating margin than others within the industry meaning any loan would be of a higher risk to us.

Outcomes Delivered

2023/24

2024/25

Quartile 1

Median

Quartile 3

Quartile Performance

Reinvestment %*

18.08%

4.83%

5.20%

7.70%

11.00%

Bottom

As a very small provider the reinvestment metric will be subjected to massive peaks and troughs depending on the stage any developments have reached. The refurbishment of three of our properties has had a significant impact on our metrics last year, despite being small in 'real' terms.

Effective Asset Management

2023/24

2024/25

Quartile 1

Median

Quartile 3

Quartile Performance

Return on capital employed (ROCE) % *

-28.05%

2.48%

2.20%

2.80%

3.40%

Second

Occupancy

87.00%

82.00%

98.90%

99.50%

99.90%

As a small provider a void property has a large impact on the percentage of occupancy. With some properties unavailable at times due to maintenance works, and a new pilot scheme being set up and expanded after 6 months, occupancy was lower than anticipated, but should improve next year.

Operating Efficiencies

2023/24

2024/25

Quartile 1

Median

Quartile 3

Quartile Performance

Headline social housing cost per unit £

£24,885

£23,117

£4,495

£5,136

£6,350

Top

Overheads as % adjusted turnover

N/A

N/A

10.47%

13.35%

16.84%

N/A

With the addition of a pilot scheme, currently, 90% of our housing provision is supported, significantly more than the majority of other supported housing providers. As a small provider the increase in costs due to inflation has had a significant impact on the cost per unit without any significant change in how we operate. We also completed some planned maintenance that had been disrupted due to knock-on effects of covid disruption, increasing our expenditure last year, and continued to improve the condition of all of our stock this year.

Key to Quartile Performance

Top :

the top 25% of associations

Third quartile :

above median but not top

Second quartile :

below median but not bottom

Bottom :

the bottom 25% of associations

Tenancy Satisfaction Measures

Tenant satisfaction measures were introduced from April 2023 as part of The Regulator of Social Housing new consumer standards to provide customers with greater transparency about how their landlord is performing, supporting tenant led scrutiny. Ten focus on our own performance information, these are known as Technical Measures. Twelve come from survey responses where customers rate things including repairs, home and neighbourhood quality. These are known as Perception Measures.

As a small provider, we have taken a census approach, and all perception measures are calculated directly from those returned. Our aim is to conduct two a year, approximately six months apart, to gain a wide consensus of our residents across the year as a provider of primarily short-term accommodation. We aim to report the results annually, though as a small provider, we are only required to report every two years.

As the second year of collating and reporting these measures it is encouraging that satisfaction with the landlord's approach to handling complaints has improved significantly. Many of the measures are similar across the two years, although it is difficult to ascertain trends as yet. Satisfaction with repairs has dropped, although time taken to complete the repair has improved. It is worth noting that as a supported housing provider, offering accommodation for up to 18 months, most of the surveys will be completed by individuals who have not completed one previously. This makes it more challenging to compare across surveys as different individuals will have different expectations and responses may be directly related to incidents, though the data should still provide general trends.

This is the first time we are able to benchmark our results with other housing associations. The RSH have published the median data from providers with over 1000 units. Primarily DASH is scoring consistently higher than the median. With a couple of exceptions; notably complaints. It is worth remembering that DASH is comparatively small, and whilst the calculation factors it to a proportion of 1000 units, 1 complaint will always look significant because of our size. It would be unrealistic to expect not to receive any complaints; we view complaints as valuable opportunities for learning and growth, providing insight into areas where reviews may enhance our policies, procedures, or standard practices.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures - Perception

2023/24

2024/25

Median

TP01

Overall satisfaction

89%

89%

71.30%

TP02

Satisfaction with repairs

94%

86%

72.30%

TP03

Satisfaction with time taken to complete most recent repair

81%

85%

67.40%

TP04

Satisfaction that the home is well maintained

95%

93%

70.80%

TP05

Satisfaction that the home is safe

95%

85%

76.70%

TP06

Satisfaction that the landlord listens to tenant views and acts upon them

89%

89%

60.40%

TP07

Satisfaction that the landlord keeps tenants informed about things that matter to them

95%

93%

70.30%

TP08

Agreement that the landlord treats tenants fairly and with respect

95%

93%

76.80%

TP09

Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling complaints

63%

100%

34.50%

TP10

Satisfaction that the landlord keeps communal areas clean and well maintained

82%

71%

65.10%

TP11

Satisfaction that the landlord makes a positive contribution to neighbourhoods

63%

85%

63.10%

TP12

Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour

79%

81%

57.80%

Tenant Satisfaction Measures -

Technical

CH01

Complaints relative to the size of the landlord; Stage 1 (per 1,000 homes)

67

91

42.5

CH01

Complaints relative to the size of the landlord; Stage 2 (per 1,000 homes)

22

0

5.7

CH02

Complaints responded to with Complaint Handling Code timescales; Stage 1

100%

100%

82.3

CH02

Complaints responded to with Complaint Handling Code timescales; Stage 2

100%

100%

83.6

NM01

Anti-social behaviour cases relative to the size of the landlord (per 1,000 homes)

22

36

35.5

NM01

Anti-social behaviour cases that involve a hate incident relative to the size of the landlord (per 1,000 homes)

0

0

0.6

RP01

Homes that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard

0%

0%

0.50%

RP02

Repairs completed with target timescales (non-emergency)

82%

90%

81.30%

RP02

Repairs completed with target timescales (emergency)

100%

100%

95.30%

BS01

Gas Safety Checks

100%

100%

99.90%

BS02

Fire Safety Checks

65%

100%

100%

BS03

Asbestos Safety Checks

N/A

N/A

100%

BS04

Water Safety Checks

100%

100%

100%

BS05

Lift Safety Checks

N/A

N/A

100%

Future plans

The programme of property refreshment continues. All the work initially identified has been completed, leaving a rolling programme of planned maintenance. Minor refurbishments will continue to each property in-between residents to maintain all properties to a high standard. We will also review our existing provision to determine its suitability moving forward in a changing market and whether we need to seek additional or alternative properties to provide a broader profile of options for residents.

We will continue to look at and explore development and expansion opportunities in a variety of formats which may be purchasing or leasing existing housing; Section 106 properties within new build estates; or re-purposing existing buildings such as pubs or church buildings.

The two-year pilot Hospital Discharge Scheme has been very successful and has already been expanded and extended. The next step is to extend the scheme beyond a pilot into a fully funded service. We will also continue to explore other contract or pilot opportunities as they arise.

Structure, governance and management

Governing document

Durham Action on Single Housing Limited is a Charitable Company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 10th February 1972 (under the name of Durham Cyrenians Limited) and registered as a charity on the same day. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association which set out the objects and powers of a charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association. In the event of the company being wound up, members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £10.

The Association registered with the Homes England as a Registered Provider of affordable and social housing under the Housing Act 1996 on the 20th March 2020.

Trustees are automatically retired by rotation every three years at the annual general meeting but are eligible for re election where appropriate. Annually a skills audit is conducted by the existing Trustees, which identifies gaps in knowledge within the Board. Anyone thinking of joining the Board of Trustees will be invited to attend meetings as an observer before formally joining the board. Training is provided to all Board members (existing or new) where the annual skills has identified a gap in knowledge or new legislation has occurred.

The charity has a Trustee Board with our standing orders allowing for up to 12 members, currently operating with 8 members, who meet on a bi-monthly basis. In addition, staff, including the Director, the Operations Manager, and the Finance and Admin Manager attend the board meetings.

The Governance documents continue to be reviewed on a rolling programme with the Board. In January 2021 the Board adopted the 2020 NHF Code of Governance and NHF Code of Conduct (2012). The Governance and Financial Viability Standard and the other economic standards were self-assessed as compliant in May 2025.

The Board of Trustees is also committed to maintaining regular dialogue with Homes England and the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) to enable the charity to meet the regulatory standards laid down for Registered Providers.

A business development plan is maintained on an ongoing basis, given a full strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis. The Business Continuity Plan and the Risk Register will be reviewed by the new management team as part of the review of all service provision.

Key management remuneration

Remuneration is reviewed annually by the Board of Trustees by reviewing rates of inflation, industry factors and the Real Living Wage. Any pay awards for all staff including SMT are approved by the Board of Trustees. The Board remains committed to offering, as a minimum, the Real Living Wage.

Reference and administrative details

Registered Company number

01041946 (England and Wales)

Registered Charity number

501556

Registered office

Hudson House

Gort Place

Durham

County Durham

DH1 1EY

Trustees

C J Curry (Chair) (resigned 20/12/24)

V Halliday

W Manners

B Craven (Chair) (appointed 27/11/24)

C Rook (resigned 9/7/25)

M Costello (resigned 30/7/25)

P Samuel (Treasurer)

C Tighe

A Toes

M McGuigan (resigned 5/6/24)

S Henderson (appointed 20/5/24)

Senior Statutory Auditor

S Davies, MMath, FCA

Auditors

Mitchell Gordon LLP

Accountants and Statutory Auditor

43 Coniscliffe Road

Darlington

Co. Durham

DL3 7EH

Management Team

Mark Prinn - Director

Louise Ridsdale - Operations Manager

Heather Witham - Finance & Admin Manager

Registered Social Housing Provider number

5087

Statement of trustees' responsibilities

The trustees (who are also the directors of Durham Action On Single Housing Limited for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Report of the Trustees and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period. In preparing those financial statements, the trustees are required to

-	select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

-	observe the methods and principles in the Charity SORP;

-	make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

-	state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;

-	prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In so far as the trustees are aware:

-	there is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company's auditors are unaware; and

-	the trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information.

Auditors

The auditors, Mitchell Gordon LLP, will be proposed for re-appointment at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting.

Report of the trustees, incorporating a strategic report, approved by order of the board of trustees, as the company directors, on 25 September 2025 and signed on the board's behalf by:

B Craven - Trustee

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Durham Action On Single Housing Limited (the 'charitable company') for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, the Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

-	give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company's affairs as at 31 March 2025 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

-	have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

-	have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditors' responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC's Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report, other than the financial statements and our Report of the Independent Auditors thereon.

Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

-	the information given in the Report of the Trustees for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

-	the Report of the Trustees has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Report of the Trustees.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

-	adequate accounting records have not been kept or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

-	the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

-	certain disclosures of trustees' remuneration specified by law are not made; or

-	we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees' Responsibilities, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue a Report of the Independent Auditors that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:

-

the engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;

-

we identified the laws and regulations applicable to the company through discussions with directors and other management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the sectors in which the company operates;

-

we focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the charitable company, including the Companies Act 2006, Charities Act 2011, Homes England, Regulator of Social housing, taxation legislation, data protection compliance, anti-bribery, employment, environmental and health and safety legislation;

-

we assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management and inspecting legal correspondence; and

-

identified laws and regulations were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of non-compliance throughout the audit.

These procedures did not identify any potentially material actual or suspected non-compliance.

We assessed the susceptibility of the company's financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:

-

making enquiries of management as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;

-

considering the internal controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations.

To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we:

-

performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;

-

reviewed material journal entries to identify unusual transactions or posting by unusual users;

-

assessed whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates were indicative of potential bias;

-

investigated the rationale behind significant or unusual transactions.

In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:

-

agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;

-

reading the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance;

-

enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims;

-

reviewing correspondence with HMRC and the company's legal advisors.

Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material misstatements in the financial statements, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. For example, the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the inherently limited procedures required by auditing standards would identify it.

In addition, as with any audit, there remains a higher risk of non-detection of fraud, as these may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal controls. Our audit procedures are designed to detect material misstatement. We are not responsible for preventing non-compliance of fraud and cannot be expected to detect non-compliance with all laws & regulations.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Report of the Independent Auditors.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors' report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

S Davies, MMath, FCA (Senior Statutory Auditor)

for and on behalf of Mitchell Gordon LLP

Accountants and Statutory Auditor

43 Coniscliffe Road

Darlington

Co. Durham

DL3 7EH

30 September 2025

31/3/25

31/3/24

Unrestricted

Restricted

Total

Total

funds

funds

funds

funds

Notes

£

£

£

£

Income and endowments from

Donations and legacies

4

6,464

-

6,464

10,117

Charitable activities

6

Charitable activities

168,485

1,102,970

1,271,455

707,796

Investment income

5

32,502

-

32,502

19,075

Total

207,451

1,102,970

1,310,421

736,988

Expenditure on

Charitable activities

7

Charitable activities

214,002

1,042,595

1,256,597

1,119,828

NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)

(6,551

)

60,375

53,824

(382,840

)

Transfers between funds

20

(43,200

)

43,200

-

-

Other recognised gains/(losses)

Gains/(losses) on revaluation of fixed assets

308,750

-

308,750

(90,000

)

Net movement in funds

258,999

103,575

362,574

(472,840

)

Reconciliation of funds

Total funds brought forward

1,681,167

4,352

1,685,519

2,158,359

Total funds carried forward

1,940,166

107,927

2,048,093

1,685,519

31/3/25

31/3/24

Unrestricted

Restricted

Total

Total

funds

funds

funds

funds

Notes

£

£

£

£

Fixed assets

Tangible assets

14

1,111,125

-

1,111,125

787,186

Current assets

Stocks

15

476

-

476

236

Debtors

16

155,221

-

155,221

61,079

Cash at bank and in hand

868,520

107,927

976,447

944,786

1,024,217

107,927

1,132,144

1,006,101

Creditors

Amounts falling due within one year

17

(72,726

)

-

(72,726

)

(46,990

)

Net current assets

951,491

107,927

1,059,418

959,111

Total assets less current liabilities

2,062,616

107,927

2,170,543

1,746,297

Deferred income

19

(122,450

)

-

(122,450

)

(60,778

)

NET ASSETS

1,940,166

107,927

2,048,093

1,685,519

Funds

20

Unrestricted funds

1,940,166

1,681,167

Restricted funds

107,927

4,352

Total funds

2,048,093

1,685,519

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees and authorised for issue on 25 September 2025 and were signed on its behalf by:

B Craven - Trustee

Cash flows from operating activities

Cash generated from operations

1

17,269

(185,846

)

Net cash provided by/(used in) operating activities

17,269

(185,846

)

Cash flows from investing activities

Purchase of tangible fixed assets

(18,110

)

(102,081

)

Interest received

32,502

19,075

Net cash provided by/(used in) investing activities

14,392

(83,006

)

Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period

31,661

(268,852

)

Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period

944,786

1,213,638

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period

976,447

944,786

1.	RECONCILIATION OF NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE) TO NET CASH FLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES

31/3/25

31/3/24

£

£

Net income/(expenditure) for the reporting period (as per the Statement of Financial Activities)

53,824

(382,840

)

Adjustments for:

Depreciation charges

2,921

1,493

Interest received

(32,502

)

(19,075

)

Impairment of fixed assets

-

159,407

Increase in stocks

(240

)

(112

)

(Increase)/decrease in debtors

(94,142

)

1,552

Increase in creditors

87,408

53,729

Net cash provided by/(used in) operations

17,269

(185,846

)

2.	ANALYSIS OF CHANGES IN NET FUNDS

At 1/4/24

Cash flow

At 31/3/25

£

£

£

Net cash

Cash at bank and in hand

944,786

31,661

976,447

944,786

31,661

976,447

Total

944,786

31,661

976,447

1.	STATUTORY INFORMATION

The charitable company, a public benefit entity, is limited by guarantee and is registered in England and Wales. The members of the charitable company are the Trustees named on page 8. In the event of the charitable company being wound up, the liability of the guarantee is limited to £10 per member. The registered office of the charitable company is Hudson House, Gort Place, Durham, DH1 1EY.

The presentation currency of the financial statements is the Pound Sterling (£).

2.	ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of preparing the financial statements

The financial statements of the charitable company, which is a public benefit entity under FRS 102, have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) '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)', Financial Reporting Standard 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' and the Companies Act 2006. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, as modified by the revaluation of certain assets.

Income

Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the item(s) of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

Income from Government and other grants, whether ‘capital’ grants or ‘revenue’ grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.

Income received in advance of the rental period due or provision of other specified service it is deferred until the criteria for income recognition are met.

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the Bank.

Expenditure

Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure, 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 accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all cost related to the category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources.

Allocation and apportionment of costs

Cost allocation includes an element of judgement and the charity has had to consider the cost benefit of detailed calculations and record keeping. To ensure full cost recovery on projects the charity adopts a policy of allocating costs to the respective cost headings through the year.

The trustees have allocated the support costs on a headcount and percentage of income basis which they deem to be the most accurate.

Tangible fixed assets

Depreciation is provided at the following annual rates in order to write off each asset over its estimated useful life.

Social housing properties

-

not provided

Freehold property

-

not provided

Motor vehicles

-

25% on cost