Augustine Housing Trust has withdrawn its appeal to Charity Tribunal over the Charity Commission’s decision to open a statutory inquiry into the charity over its occupation of commercial premises.
The storage charity, which is also known as StoreFair, must now send the regulator its accounts for the year ending 31 July 2012, the minutes of trustee meetings held in the last two years, confirmation of whether trustees or their relatives have benefited financially from the charity, a copy of its conflicts of interest policy and confirmation of whether it sought professional advice before entering into leases, by 5pm today.
Augustine Housing Trust was set up in 2003 to provide storage for homeless people's belongings.
In May the Commission opened a statutory inquiry into Augustine Housing Trust over its occupation of commercial premises, which the Commission said may mean it is liable for business rates.
Charities receive 80 per cent mandatory relief on business rates on any property they occupy. Some commercial landlords with empty property, who are liable for the rates on those buildings have approached and offered them donations to take on leases, as part of a scheme to avoid that tax.
It is one of a number of charities that have been investigated for similar activity recently. In July the Melton Arts and Crafts Trust was removed from the Register of Charities after the local council complained that it was being used to avoid paying rates on industrial units, and in 2013 the High Court ordered the Public Safety Charitable Trust to be wound up.
Augustine Housing Trust is also under investigation over its late filing of accounts. The most recent set of accounts filed on the Commission’s site are for 2011/12 showed it had an income of £22,942 but a spending of £10.
In May Kevin Gregory, a trustee of the charity, told Civil Society News that: “Our accounts have been filed properly since 2004, we’ve always sent the same figures, but not in the form they want.”
Gregory is also a trustee of Legal Action, which is also being investigated by the Charity Commission. The Commission opened a statutory inquiry earlier this month after Legal Action failed to implement an action plan to deal with issues that had been identified over a four-year period.
