Labour MP Stella Creasy had the chair of anti-poverty charity Glasspool Charitable Trust thrown out of Parliament yesterday evening, saying he had not shown sufficient concern to the charity's former tenants.
The grantmaking trust recently sold the charity’s 63 directly held properties to a property developer. This has led to the charity's former tenants being sent eviction notices.
In a statement yesterday evening the Labour MP for Walthamstow said: “For the first time in six years I have thrown someone out of Parliament - the chair of Glasspool who had the temerity to suggest they have no obligations or concerns for the residents of the Butterfields estate who are being made homeless because of their decision to sell the properties to a private development company.
“Despite Glasspool’s charitable objective being to prevent destitution he just shrugged and said it was ok because they had made money and 'it happens'.”
She said on Twitter than she had escorted him to the lobby and told police he was no longer welcome in the building.
She added that she told the charity it was “a disgrace and needed to take a long hard look at themselves” and that: “If they think they can treat the lives of Walthamstow residents as collateral damage in their investment schemes they are mistaken!”
In a previous statement the charity said that by selling the property it is “able to increase the amount of money it gives away from around £200,000 a year to nearly £1.5m a year” and that: “Our founder bequeathed his estate with the sole aim of helping people out of poverty.
“That charitable aim has continued with the use of investment income to provide grants directly to individuals and families in need.
“In order to be able to provide these grants the trustees realised that they had to sell the charity’s directly held properties to maximise the amount of money the charity could give away. It was a difficult decision to take but the Trust was not established as a social housing provider. The sale of the remaining 63 units in Butterfields were the last directly owned properties of the Trust.”
Creasy has previously written to the Charity Commission about the issue.
A Commission spokesman said: “The Commission was aware of the media coverage relating to the charity. Subsequently, the Commission received a serious incident report from the charity regarding this coverage. The Commission is assessing the report to see whether there is a regulatory role for the Charity Commission.”
31 March
This article originally stated that the Commission had asked the charity to submit a serious incident report, because this is what the Commission said at the time of writing the story. The Commission has now informed Civil Society News that the charity contacted the Commission, not the other way round.
