The Charity Commission has used its powers to merge two disputing charities to run premises as one organisation.
Today, the commission announced that it had merged the Muslim Community Centre and Mosque 1977 with the Dudley Central Mosque and Muslim Community Centre, which are both the subjects of statutory inquiries.
It is “extremely rare” for the commission to use this power, which is only used “in the most complex of cases”.
The regulator took action to resolve confusion around which charity is responsible for the mosque and its day-to-day management and tackle years of governance concerns at the Dudley Central Mosque and Muslim Community Centre.
“To date, the existence of two charities, both with complicated structures, has exacerbated a dispute between involved parties,” it said.
“The regulator continues to encourage parties to mediate, as talks previously hadn’t progressed in part due to the complexity of this case.”
Years of regulatory concerns
The regulator opened a statutory inquiry into the Dudley Central Mosque and Muslim Community Centre in July 2022 after the charity had repeatedly failed to meet its accounting requirements, despite previous regulatory engagement.
When the regulator opened its inquiry into the charity, it had already been the subject of three regulatory compliance cases, all of which examined issues related to an ongoing dispute between two groups representing the charity.
Then, in April 2025, the regulator opened an inquiry into the Muslim Community Centre and Mosque 1977 due to a dispute between the unregistered charity and Dudley Central Mosque and Muslim Community Centre that posed a risk to charity property.
The regulator also looked at “a lack of clarity around the respective charities’ roles in managing its shared property in Birmingham Street, Dudley, and how related charitable funds are banked”.
At the time, it concluded that the Muslim Community Centre and Mosque 1977 was a charity, but failed to identify its current trustees.
‘Unprecedented’ use of powers
The commission has now created a new governing document to enable the newly combined charity to operate effectively, “an unprecedented use of its powers which haven’t been applied in this way for over 20 years”.
The new governing document includes workable parts from each charity’s existing governing documents, sets out rules on how the organisation should run in line with charity law and official guidance.
It aims to guide elected trustees on issues such as decision-making, minute-taking, roles and responsibilities and membership at the charity.
The commission has also instructed the interim trustees appointed to the Dudley Mosque and Community Centre to hold elections.
“Trustees have been given a clearer framework to appoint future trustees and admit members to the new charity, offering a transparent way for members of the community to be involved in the charity moving forward,” it said.
