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Islamic Help scraps boarding school plans after Commission visit

Fundraising | Vibeka Mair | 9 Feb 2010

Islamic Help, a poverty relief charity in Birmingham, has ditched plans to build the UK’s biggest boarding school after an intervention by its local MP and a visit by the regulator.

However, an appeal for donations for the school is still on its website today.

The Charity Commission began talks with Islamic Help after Labour MP for Pendle, Gordon Prentice, raised concerns with it about misapplied funds.

Prentice first tackled Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather about the organisation at last year’s Public Administration Select Committee hearing.

Prentice told Leather: “I am particularly concerned about Islamic Help - a Birmingham-based charity running a £1m fundraising campaign to purchase a school in my Pendle constituency and turn it into the biggest boarding school in the UK, catering for 5,000 Muslim girls.

“The charity’s mission is the ‘relief of financial hardship’. The fundraising campaign and its mission do not appear to be compatible. Would the Commission please investigate?”

Last month Prentice also tabled an early day motion on the matter, urging the Charity Commission to investigate.

This week, the Commission said it had met with the vice-chair of Islamic Help and been told that plans for the school had now been scrapped.

“The charity has advised us that it has no immediate plans for the creation of a boarding school, which would not be within the charity’s objects,” said a Charity Commission spokeswoman. “The charity has informed us that the building will become the charity’s headquarters.”

The Commission also said that all funds raised for the boarding school appeal would be returned to known donors. However, an online appeal for funds for the school, called Pendle Boarding School for Girls, was still on the charity’s website today, along with details and images of plans for the development (pictured).

Charity: 'No orders from Commission'

And Islamic Help, which purchased a seven-acre mill property to convert into the school, told Civil Society that it has not been issued with any specific orders by the Commission.

Zaheer Khan, fundraising manager at Islamic Help, said: “We can confirm that a meeting was held with the Charity Commission last week to discuss various issues concerning Islamic Help’s recent appeal and the purchase of Brierfield Mills.

“It was a constructive meeting that enabled representatives of the Commission to hear the plans for the charity and the use of the building. These discussions are now ongoing. We have not been issued with any specific orders from the Commission, but we want to assure members of the community that Islamic Help has and always will be working within the framework of charity law. We are most grateful to the Commission for their guidance.”

MP: 'Still questions to be answered'

But Gordon Prentice MP told Civil Society that there were still questions to be answered.

“The building site, which is a mill, is huge. It is seven acres and built in the 1890s. What rates will the charity have to pay? I have concerns about where the money came from. It got £650,000 from Lloyds TSB – what purpose did it give? The Commission needs to keep a supervisory role on the finances of this charity which need to be properly audited.”

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