Action on Hearing Loss downsizes headquarters

08 May 2017 News

Action on Hearing Loss's Highbury headquarters

Action on Hearing Loss has sold its headquarters in order to downsize and invest equity back into the charity’s fundraising activities.

The charity moved into its new headquarters in Highbury, Islington last week, having sold its property on Featherstone Street in March 2014 with a leaseback arrangement.

The charity sold its Featherstone Street property for £11.8m, and purchased the new property 18 months ago for £6.65m. It allocated itself a “refurbishment and relocation budget” of £1.75m, and invested the remaining equity of over £3m released from Featherstone Street into diversifying its fundraising activities.

Approximately 150 of its 800 staff are based at the charity's head office.

Peter Robson, executive director of corporate resources at the charity, told Civil Society News that the money has gone “straight back into the charity to grow our fundraising base”.

Robson said they made the move as the charity “wanted to get a head office location that provided us with an environment that was more fit for purpose for the charity today”.

He said: “So we downsized the size of the building, the old one was much too large for our requirements, and we have now got a smaller footplate that provides us as an organisation with an agile working environment for our head office staff to deliver on our strategy.”

The charity had an income of £38.4m at the year ending March 2016, and spent £38.8m. 

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