The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland" 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)".
The company's objective is the promotion, for the public benefit, of urban regeneration in the area of social and economic deprivation in North West Belfast.
Strategies for achieving objectives
To achieve this the company provides business units for start up and small business, at flexible and favourable rates with on site help and advice, to encourage the creation of job opportunities for unemployed people in the area.
The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.
Main activities undertaken to further the Company's purposes for the public benefit
One of the main activities of the company is the provision of advice and guidance to anyone wishing to start up a business venture or to become self-employed.
The company have given regard to The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland's guidance on public benefit.
Review of activities
The activities of the company continue to involve the creation and stimulation of job opportunities through support for the creation of new enterprises and support for existing small businesses, within Northern Ireland (specially in the deprived area of North and West Belfast).
During the year, the company attracted three new businesses into the park, two of which were new start businesses. Susan Foster T/A, Sistine’s, a company which sells antique, retro and vintage goods. Jude Savage T/A, J&S Construction Ltd, a local builder, and the third company, NI Technology Ltd, which has an office locally but needed additional space for a workroom/warehouse.
Several of the companies within the park are still struggling to keep afloat after the knock-on effect of the Pandemic and the rising costs of utilities.
Enquires for units have been steady throughout the year but are mostly for smaller units and there has been no demand for larger units which businesses trying to lower their overheads.
Factors relevant to achieve objectives
The generation of sufficient rental income to cover running costs enabled the provision of services to employment creation.
Principal funding
The company was originally supported by LEDU and assisted by International Fund for Ireland. No current funding applies and company is self financing.
Going concern
After making appropriate enquiries, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements. Further details regarding the adoption of the going concern basis can be found in the accounting policies.
Reserves policy
It is the policy of the charity that unrestricted funds which have not been designated for a specific use should be maintained at a level equivalent to between three and six month’s expenditure. The trustees consider that reserves at this level will ensure that, in the event of a significant drop in funding, they will be able to continue the charity’s current activities while consideration is given to ways in which additional funds may be raised. This level of reserves has been maintained throughout the year.
The Trustees will continue to review the level of reserves that is prudent for the charity to hold in relation to known future development, liabilities and uncertainties.
The company is registered as a charitable company limited by guarantee and was set up by a Memorandum of Association on 7th April 1987 and is a registered charity number NIC100182.
The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:
The management of the Company is the responsibility of the Trustees who are elected and co-opted under the terms of the Articles of Association. The company secretary is responsible for keeping the books and records of the company, and is assisted by one other member of staff.
Serving Trustees have the power to appoint any person as an additional Trustee; the number of Trustees shall not be subject to any maximum but shall not be less than three. Each year at the AGM a third of the Trustess are required to retire on a rotational basis, and they can be re-appointed. The Trustees shall be entitled to such remuneration as the company may by ordinary resolution determine; any remuneration shall be deemed to accrue from day to day. The Trustees are also entitled to reimbursement of any travel expenses incurred by them in attending meetings on in connection with any other business of the company.
Organisational structure and decision-making policies
The company has one member of staff, manager who makes day to day decisions and reports directly to the Trustees. All major decisions require sanctioning by the Financial Director and the Trustees.
No funds are held as custodian on behalf of others.
The trustees, who are also the directors of Farset Enterprise Park Limited for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees Report 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 charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.
In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and
- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing that Miscampbell & Co be reappointed as auditor of the company will be put at a General Meeting.
The trustees report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Farset Enterprise Park Limited (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
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 Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity 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.
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 charity’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 other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. 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 course of 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.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities Accounts and Reports Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the trustees report; or
sufficient accounting records have not been kept; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
As explained more fully in the statement of trustees responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the charity for the purpose 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 charity’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.
We have been appointed as auditor under section 65(2) of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.
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 an auditor's report 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.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that are applicable to the Charitable Company and determined that the most significant are those that relate to the reporting framework (FRS 102 and the Companies Act 2006) and the relevant tax compliance regulation in the United Kingdom;
understood how the Charitable Company is complying with those frameworks by making enquiries of management to understand how the Charitable Company maintains and communicates its policies and procedures in these areas;
assessed the vulnerability of the Charitable Company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including how fraud might occur by considering the risk of management override and by assuming revenue recognition to be a fraud risk; and
based on this understanding our audit procedures were designed to identify non-compliance with such laws and regulations.
We assessed the susceptibility of the company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by;
identification of related parties;
making enquiries of management regarding where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
considering the internal controls in place within the company to mitigate the risk of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations;
To address the risk of fraud, override of controls and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected related party relationships, tested journal entries to identity unusual transactions, investigated any significant or unusual transactions and assessed whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates were suggestive of potential bias.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities Accounts and Reports Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity’s trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s 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 charity and the charity’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
Miscampbell & Co is eligible for appointment as auditor of the charity by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.
Investments
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
The notes on pages 10 to 17 form part of these financial statements.
The notes on pages 10 to 17 form part of these financial statements.
The principal activity of the company continued to be the provision of rental units at favourable rates for start-up business.
Farset Enterprise Park Limited is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in Northern Ireland. The registered office is 638 Springfield Road, Belfast, BT12 7DY.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with 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 or grantors 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.
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
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.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
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.
Support costs
Support costs
Governance costs includes payments to the auditors of £4,200 (2024- £4,300) for audit fees.
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund. The pension cost charge represents contributions payable by the company to the fund and amounted to £699 (2024: £657). Contributions totalling £145 (2024: £145) were payable to the fund at the balance sheet date and are included in creditors.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
During the year the charity entered into the following transactions with related parties:
One of the trustees in the company (FEPL) are also trustees in Farset Development Limited (FDL). Included in Other Debtors is a loan of £Nil (2024: £10,005 ) due from FDL.