BUSINESS ENTERPRISE HERITAGE TRUST
Minutes of a meeting held on Zoom on 17[th] September 2025
Present: Mark Casson (Chairman), Janet Casson (Treasurer), Brian Turner (Secretary), Catherine Casson, Simon Townley.
- 1 Apologies
Peter Buckley, Andrew Godley, John Creedy, Lucy Newton
- 2 Minutes of the meeting held on 11[th] November 2024
The minutes were agreed as a correct record.
3 Matters arising not appearing on the Agenda
There were none.
4 Trustee members
Nothing had changed since the last meeting as regards a replacement trustee for Eric Jones.
- 5 Chairman’s report
The Chairman has produced a written report which is included as Appendix A. He commented on the receipt of salvaged material from Reading University
It had been difficult to tie down the bookbinder to a date referred to in last year’s minutes. It had been decided to retain the books for now.
He reported that the model railway was progressing thanks to the work of Peter Cotter. It is the intention that the railway will display details of real-life working at various industrial locations and periods of time.
6 Treasurer’s Report
The accounts are reproduced as Appendix B together with a report submitted by the Treasurer. These have been signed by Janet Casson and Brian Turner, The Independent Examiner’s report to the Charity Commission is reproduced as Appendix C.
Re-investments have been made on an 18-month basis, this ensures that income is maintained for as long as possible at a time of possibly falling rates.
All decisions on re-investments are undertaken by email consultation between the three trustees authorised to make such decisions on behalf of all the trustees of the BEHT . At present these are, the treasurer, ( Janet Casson ), the chair ( Mark Casson ) and the secretary ( Brian Turner ). Janet Casson proposed at the AGM that these three people should continue to make such decisions. The proposal was seconded by Simon Townley and all agreed.
7 Appointment of Independent Examiner
John Davies is willing to continue in this role and was re-appointed. He was proposed by Janet Casson, seconded by Brian Turner, all agreed.
8 Any other business
The website needs refreshing: Catherine’s husband Jo was working on this.
9 Next Meeting
The Secretary will organise this for a date late September/early October 2026.
APPENDIX A
BEHT chair-person’s report April 2024 – April 2025
This has been a year of consolidation. We have received the remainder of the books from the estate of Eric Jones who died in March 2024. We have also received several instalments of books from an Oxford academic and some smaller donations from a member of the Great Western Railway Society who lives in Didcot.
Our routine purchases now come mainly from National Trust bookshops (notably Hinton Ampner, Mottisfont and Attingham), and ordinary charity shops. We now purchase less from Oxfam as their prices are relatively high. We continue to purchase intermittently from the dealer Martin Smith at the Hungerford Arcade, where we get a discount of 20 per cent.
There is still spare capacity on the shelves but there is less of it than it was, which means that we need to rearrange the collections more frequently as new books are added.
Visitor number remain low but stable. The way in which the books are placed in subject order on the shelves is much appreciated by our visitors. Most visitors simply photograph relevant pages of the books in which they are interested on their mobile phones. Most visitors also find some books on their subject that they never knew existed!
New building is proceeding on the Grove Technology Park. The new buildings appear to be rows of smart high-tech-style units, somewhat like a larger version of the units that we own. The trees with preservation orders ensure that we are not unduly overlooked, but the view of the countryside north of Wantage from the upstairs windows is now somewhat impaired.
The bookbinder who gave us such useful advice last year has proved somewhat difficult to access. It was our intention to take over a small number of books for repair, but it has not proved possible so far to arrange a date.
The Academy of Internation Business approached the BEHT with a view to digitising a set of Discussion Papers on international business dating from 1972 to 2000 which are held by the BEHT and which highlight the role of Reading academics in the development of internation business studies. The documents were delivered to the digitising company in Derbyshire in April.
The model railway is progressing. The base board is set up. We will keep the lay-out flexible until we have gained some practical experience of train operations.
Update for trustees covering April 25 to Sep 25
We have received four large donations of books, the last of which arrived on the 24[th] September 2025. They are:-
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The last instalment of economics books from Peter Buckley
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A collection of shipping books from the widow of an author in Manchester.
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A large collection of books on econometrics and political economy from an associate professor at LSE
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A large collection of books on the history and methodology of economics from a full professor at LSE.
We have also received more books from both the Oxford academic and the member of the Great Western Railway Society who lives in Didcot.
Our routine purchases continue to be mainly from National Trust bookshops, including several in Co. Durham and Norfolk. We continue to purchase intermittently from the dealer Martin Smith at the Hungerford Arcade, where we get a discount of 20 per cent.
The Reading Discussion Papers on international business were returned to BEHT in June 2025 and the BEHT were invited to invoice the AIB for the work done by BEHT trustees in producing a catalogue for the 293 papers, and after negotiation an invoice for £275 was presented, and subsequently settled.
The baseboard of the model railway is now completed, and tracklaying is about to commence.
APPENDIX B
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
to fundneare s t £ to fundsnearest £ to noarestfunds [£]
B1 Cash funds | eS |
eS | [ES]
Totalcashfunds [ [__s2.gis}{][ JL]
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
to fundneare s t £ to fundneare s t £ to nearestfunds [£]
9
Fund to which Cost (optional) Current value
[umesiieted [Te
B3 [Investment][ assets] sset belongs optional)
eee |ae...
B4 Assots retained for the areeset |icontontenn | eran”
AALS OO Se (lc a |A |SE |A
fonrsmremes TTT]
akc || ey ca
Fund to which Amount due When due
- = Inability relates optional) =
Signed by one or two trustees on P Date of
behalf of ail the trustees Signature Pent aan snnreual
LAS Roy Aco BRA Tene
CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 2 01/07/2025
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Treasurer’s Report for the BEHT accounts 2024-2025 shown on the Charity Commission form CC16a (attached)
The following points elucidate the figures reported in the attached accounts
A1 The income overall is higher than in 2023-24 by £9,836. This is mainly due to the £11,136 earned as interest on the Lloyds Fixed Deposits and especially on the term deposits which were held for over 12 months. The higher interest income was offset by the reduced income from the sale of books, the reduced tax rebate on the Gift Aided donation, and the reduced interest earned by the Lloyds (sweep) account. (NB that interest was reduced because money had been put into a term deposit.)
A2 Assets and investments are higher than previous year because more money has been invested
A3 Payments
Recurrent payments have increased very slightly due to general increases Travel less as no long-distance book collections
Book purchases down (see Chair’s report)
Library purchases increased slightly because of printing the new book labels
B3 Investment Assets
Three Lloyds Term Deposits were reinvested along with their interest during June and July 2024. A new Lloyds Fixed Term Deposit was purchased in September 2024 for £30,000 at 3.50% using the monies from the ‘sweep’ bank account and will mature on 4[th] Dec 2025. Three other
Lloyds Fixed Term Deposits were reinvested along with their interest between September 2024 and February 2025.
One Lloyds Term Deposit, for £61,867 was purchased in 2023-2024 and does not mature until June 2025 so it is included in section B3 investment assets but not in sections A2 or A4 for 2024-2025. However, the first of two interest payments due on this LTD was made into the Lloyds current a/c in March 2025 and is included in A1.
John Davies our independent examiner has examined the accounts and their accompanying paperwork and has approved them. I am happy to answer questions or points of further clarification.
As Treasurer I proposed that the Trustees accepted the accounts and asked for a seconder to my proposal and a vote. Brian Turner seconded the proposal, and all the trustees accepted the accounts.
Attachments:
BEHT Accounts for 2024-2025 - Charity Commission form CC16a signed Independent Examiner’s Report for 2024-2025-signed
APPENDIX C
i
Give here brief details of |None any items that the examiner wishes to disclose.
IER
2
October 2018