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← Campaign To Protect Rural England

2024-12-31-accounts

CHARITY NUMBER: 01089685 COMPANY NUMBER: 04302973

CPRE The countryside charity

(Registered as Campaign to Protect Rural England) Company Limited by Guarantee

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

31 December 2024

Campaign to Protect Rural England

TRUSTEES’ REPORT

Year ended 31 December 2024

Contents

1. A MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIR ............................................................ 1
2. TRUSTEES’ REPORT ........................................................................... 3
3. OUR ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2024 ............................................................. 5
4. FINANCIAL REVIEW ......................................................................... 15
5. FUTURE PLANS ............................................................................... 17
6. STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT .................................. 18
7. AUDITOR ....................................................................................... 23
8. INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT ................................................... 24
9. STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES ............................................. 28
10. BALANCE SHEET ............................................................................. 29
11. STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS ........................................................... 30
12. NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ........................................... 31
13. PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS ............................................................... 55

Campaign to Protect Rural England

TRUSTEES’ REPORT

Year ended 31 December 2024

1. A MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIR

2024 has been a year when the need for a strong voice for the countryside has been more vital than ever. It was a year when so many of the issues we campaign on, from housing energy infrastructure in the right place to nature’s restoration and tackling the climate crisis, were at the heart of public debate. The new government has provided us with plenty of challenge and some opportunity in the year, and the pace of change on issues impacting the countryside has been intense. Yet throughout the year, the energy and enthusiasm of our members, supporters and funders has remained solid. Without them, so many of our campaigns for the countryside will have fallen on stony ground.

We ran a spirited campaign in the run up to the 2024 General Election, organising hustings, engaging with politicians across the political spectrum, and making sure that we communicated the value of the countryside to incoming Members of Parliament. With the new government prioritising housebuilding and planning reform in the first few months, we quickly mobilised with campaigns on the importance of affordable rural housing, the value of the green belt, and marshalling evidence from across the CPRE network to inform the revisions of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

In 2024 we revived some old partnerships and fostered some new ones to help deliver our work. We collaborated with the Federation of Master Builders on a new report highlighting the important role of small and medium size builders and developers in tackling the housing crisis. We worked with fellow travellers in the Better Planning Coalition to consider the challenges for people and the environment around proposed planning reforms in the NPPF. We reforged links with the King’s Foundation and collaborated with them on a roundtable and report exploring the important role of countryside around our towns and cities, including the Green Belt, for food, nature, health and wellbeing. We embarked on a new partnership with the Aldersgate Group and industry body RenewableUK to define some shared principles for developing energy infrastructure that properly engaged communities and considered landscape impact.

Organisationally, it has been a year of consolidation and focus. We are incredibly grateful for extremely generous legacy gifts that provided further financial stability and allowed us to invest in the build up to our centenary, one-off General Election support, and in diversifying our funding base. We tested several new approaches to growing our membership. We invested in trials of digital and face-to-face recruitment through county shows, with positive results for digital membership acquisition which we will continue in 2025 and beyond.

Our current strategy runs to 2026, our centenary year, but in 2024 we began implementation of a ‘refocus’ of our strategy for the three years 2024-6, concentrating on three themes: future countryside, the countryside next door, and building our movement. We know this will be an important three years for CPRE, bookended by the General Election in 2024 and closing with our centenary celebrations in 2026. As this report reveals, we have made good progress across each of the three themes, thanks in large part to support from our partners, members, supporters and of course the network of CPRE branches. They continue to bring CPRE’s work alive in communities across the country and this report is testament to the power of working together.

Our centenary in 2026 already looms large, with work done in 2024 having set important foundations. I am delighted that we have established a Development Board to help power the centenary chaired by Sir Nicholas Bacon and that as we closed the year, a draft Centenary programme is already emerging. I am sure that 2026 will be an extraordinary opportunity to celebrate 100 years of CPRE safeguarding our countryside, but as important is the chance to articulate a new vision for rural England and a countryside facing unprecedented challenges.

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Finally, in 2024 we were honoured that His Majesty, The King announced his patronage of CPRE, the second monarch to serve as patron following his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. He is a natural and lifelong champion for the countryside. We also welcomed a new President to CPRE in Mary-Ann Ochota – a talented broadcaster, writer and anthropologist who has already strengthened our advocacy and campaigning and brought a freshness to our communications. We look forward to working with her in the critical years ahead.

Simon Murray

Chair of the Board of Trustees

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TRUSTEES’ REPORT

Year ended 31 December 2024

2. TRUSTEES’ REPORT

The Trustees of CPRE present their annual report for the year ended 31 December 2024, together with the audited financial statements for that year. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, and articles of association, the requirements of a directors’ report as required under company law, and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England uses the operating name: CPRE The countryside charity. The legal name remains unchanged.

a) Objects and activities

The Trustees have referred to the guidance from the Charity Commission on public benefit in producing this report, and when reviewing our aims and objectives and planning our future activities. In particular, the Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.

Our charitable objects are ‘to promote and encourage for the benefit of the nation the improvement and protection of the English countryside and its towns and villages and the better development of the rural environment’.

b) Our vision and mission

At CPRE we want to see a beautiful, thriving countryside which is valued and enjoyed by all and which is enhanced and protected for this and future generations. It is vital for our wellbeing, it is the home of nature and it is a critical part of this nation’s response to the climate emergency.

CPRE’s vision is of ‘a beautiful and thriving countryside that enriches all our lives’. Our mission to take us there is to ‘promote, enhance and protect a thriving countryside’.

c) Our Strategy 2020-26

Our mission is delivered through the strategic plan which aims to broaden our appeal, increase our impact and renew our countrywide network. We had four key aims designed to guide us to achieve this mission:

  1. Connect people and countryside

We will promote the value and benefits of the countryside so that far more people engage with, understand and enjoy it, particularly those who have not benefited from it before. This will help us to create a stronger voice to enhance and protect the countryside, including locally-valued landscapes;

  1. Promote rural life

With communities and partners, we’ll develop and promote a sustainable vision for living in the countryside and bring together solutions for the rural economy, housing, farming, transport and the natural environment;

3. Empower communities

We will empower our network to engage with communities to involve more people in improving their local environment through volunteering and local action;

  1. Grow our capacity

We will bring together a larger and more diverse group of people who share our belief in a countryside for all.

In the report below we detail the work we have done during the year to further our mission.

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Last year we refocused our strategy on three key aims to guide us to our centenary in 2026:

Future Countryside

We will build a new, collective vision for the future of our countryside, in a time when it faces unprecedented challenges.

We believe in a climate friendly, nature rich, and beautiful future countryside – with changes in land use underpinned by a spatial plan that helps local people and decision makers balance the value and functions of the countryside for us all.

Countryside Next Door

We will protect and enhance locally valued landscapes and green spaces and advocate for greater access for everyone to their countryside next door.

For most of us, the most valuable countryside is that on our doorstep – the countryside next door. It might not benefit from a special designation or protection, but these are the ‘ordinary’ countryside and green spaces close to home.

Build our movement

We will inspire, equip and grow a movement of citizens taking action for positive change – powered by our network, rooted in people’s love of place, nature and the countryside.

We believe that empowering local people is key to good decision making in communities. We want to widen and diversify our reach and drive a movement for positive change in the countryside, supporting more people to take action to secure a future for our countryside.

d) Activities and services provided

Our campaigning is evidence-based, reasoned, but passionate. We are experts in the planning system and landscape character, locally and nationally. We are independent of any interest group and defend the countryside in the public interest.

The three principal ways in which we achieve our objectives are:

  1. Initiating and supporting activities that directly improve the countryside and rural communities.

  2. Influencing national policies to maximise the benefit and minimise the damage to the countryside.

  3. Supporting and developing our network of independent local CPREs and through them influencing local plans, supporting appropriate developments and preventing developments that would unnecessarily damage the countryside.

We provide an overview of our activities through this Annual Report; CPRE’s Annual Review; Countryside Voices, our magazine for members; tailored communications for donors and high-value supporters; and regular campaigns update email bulletins. Our website www.cpre.org.uk and activity through all the main social media channels promotes the value of the countryside and our work to enhance and protect it, providing advice and access to comprehensive information on our aims, activities and services.

The 39 independent county CPREs run campaigns and provide local information via their websites, publications and events. They have a very small staff and mainly rely on increasing numbers of volunteers to help them enhance and protect their local countryside.

The work of national CPRE is organised into four main departments, each of which comprises a number of teams:

  1. Policy and Advocacy: Policy, Public Affairs and Communications.

  2. Fundraising & Supporters: Members & Supporters, Philanthropy & Partnerships.

  3. Communities & Participation: Volunteering Development, Network Support and Engagement.

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  1. Finance, People & Performance: Finance, Knowledge & Data, HR and IT.

The departments work very closely together and much of our work is carried out jointly by cross-team groups of staff. We also work with volunteers from across our network. Responsibility for delivering our strategic aims brings their work together and highlights from 2024 are reported accordingly below.

3. OUR ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2024

2024 was a year of intense change externally, with a new government moving at speed on issues impacting the countryside, from housing and energy infrastructure to climate change and restoration of nature. Much of the external challenge was new and could not be planned for, so the year needed a more flexible approach to campaigning, responding to new proposals from the government to build new homes and quicken the decarbonisation of our energy infrastructure.

Internally, it has been a year of consolidation and focus. Legacy gifts provided some financial stability and allowed us to invest in our centenary, General Election support, and in diversifying our funding base and growing our membership. 2024 began implementation of a ‘refocus’ of our strategy for the three years 2024-6, concentrating on three themes: future countryside, the countryside next door, and building our movement.

Against these three headline areas of activity, the reports below demonstrate the scale and ambition of our work, not just in our public campaigns, but also in demonstration projects like Hedgerow Heroes, extending our reach through communications, and mobilising volunteers across the country to take action for the countryside.

a) Future Countryside

General Election

2024 was dominated by anticipating and responding to the General Election and new government. In the leadup to the election, we called on all parties to recognise the value of the countryside and the role it can play in tackling the many crises we face through promoting our manifesto. We urged the government to tackle the rural affordable housing crisis, reform our planning system for people and planet, kickstart a rooftop solar revolution and protect the countryside around our towns and cities. For two of those issues we ran public campaigns in the lead-in and across the year. For local CPREs in the Network, the change of government led to a number of casework successes, including the scrapping of the Stonehenge tunnel and the Arundel bypass following local group campaigns.

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Rural Affordable Housing Campaign

Following the launch of our “State of Rural Affordable Housing” report in November 2023, in the first half of 2024, we inspired over eight thousand supporters to sign our pre-General Election pledge for a countryside everyone can afford to live in. We published a number of case studies telling the emotional stories of those who have fallen victim to the housing crisis, as well as those who are working towards solutions. Our survey with YouGov showed that opposition to new developments halves if houses are affordable, showing that delivering the right homes for communities is not only the right thing to do – but can pass through the planning system more smoothly.

After the election, we attended all three main political party conferences with a focus on Labour. At the Labour Conference, we joined forces with the Federation of Master Builders to host a panel discussion and produced a policy paper calling on the government to diversify the market of housebuilders as a key part of the solution to getting more affordable homes built quickly. Policy change could level the playing field for small and mediumsized housebuilders (SMEs) who have a better track record of building homes in sustainable places more quickly than volume housebuilders.

Rooftop Solar campaign

We continued to urge the government to unlock the power of rooftop solar as a common-sense solution to provide cheap, clean energy while protecting our countryside. The year started with a survey of over 2,600 CPRE supporters. This showed widespread support for rooftop solar on warehouses, industrial buildings and new homes. Further CPRE analysis showed that the countryside is leading the way on rooftop solar generation, with rural areas having the highest levels of domestic rooftop solar generation. Our accompanying report gave examples of how countries around the globe have made rooftop solar a reality. We closed the year by starting to mobilise our supporters to contact their MPs about a new Bill in parliament that would mandate rooftop solar on all new build homes, and we’ll be taking this call forward into 2025.

Net zero energy transition

Beyond solar, throughout 2024 we worked with the Aldersgate Group and Renewable UK to explore how our planning system can better support the delivery of clean energy infrastructure while protecting nature and landscapes and ensuring communities get a voice. The resulting report launched in November made practical recommendations to government and we continue to jointly advocate on the back of this.

Shaping changes to national planning policy

Planning reform is a major focus for the new government and this has already offered CPRE new opportunities to influence and raise our profile. We submitted a whole CPRE response to the government’s consultation on the ‘planning rule book’ - the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). As part of this we consulted and engaged with a wide range of stakeholders in advance to build alignment on key principles for the reforms, including through a round table event involving policy makers in September. At the Labour Party annual conference we hosted a panel event in partnership with several nature organisations and Progressive Britain on the issue of how to build homes whilst delivering for our countryside and natural environment.

The subsequent revised guidance published in December 2024 included a number of positive elements; including retention of the ‘local green space’ designation following CPRE demonstrating its popularity with local communities. There have also been moves to put a brake on speculative planning appeals; again, following CPRE research in 2023 highlighting the problems these were causing. Developers will now be under greater expectations to comply either with local plans or with national policies on ‘directing development to

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sustainable locations, making effective use of land, securing well-designed places and providing affordable homes’. Some other changes were more disappointing and to date there has been a lack of action on rural affordable housing. We are continuing our advocacy on those points and into the further planning reform agenda due across 2025.

Increasing our profile

2024 was a very strong year for media coverage of CPRE and its campaigns. Highlights included spokespeople appearing on BBC News bulletins, in a live debate on Channel 4 News and twice on the front page of the Times. BBC Countryfile, the Telegraph and the Sun ran stories that focused on our rural affordable housing campaign; the Sunday Times, Daily Mail and the Guardian featured our work as advocates for the Green Belt and other protected landscapes; and the Telegraph, BBC Radio 4 Rare Earth and ITV News covered our rooftop solar campaign.

Of particular note this year was the very extensive coverage of our response to the new National Planning Policy Framework. This included stories on BBC News, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, Channel 4 News and Channel 5 News, as well as in the Guardian, the Times, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail.

CPRE was mentioned 3,826 times across print, broadcast and digital media. Although this represents a modest increase from 3,795 mentions in 2023, our 2024 media appearances were significantly higher profile than those the previous year.

b) Countryside Next Door

Hedgerow Heroes

Hedgerow Heroes concluded its third year in April 2024 and started its fourth later in July thanks to generous funding from a corporate donor. During the 2023/4 planting and restoring season nine projects across the country planted or gapped up 19 miles, bringing the total figure to 47 miles since Phase 1. As well as the improvement to hedgerows, the project also delivers a number of other benefits. There were 350 events hosted by local CPREs during Phase 3, attracting over 2,000 people from the local community, including colleges and companies. Twenty-seven schools also took part on engagement or planting days and 23km of hedgerow were surveyed to help assess their health.

Phase 4 (2024/5) is currently underway and eight local CPREs are participating with a target of approximately 12 miles of planting, laying or coppicing. Yet again, the local CPREs are leading diverse, interesting and inspiring projects to engage people in hedgerows as well as ensuring the restoration work continues. Alongside this, we published further research on areas of England that would particularly benefit from new hedgerow planting, which we plan to use with the new government as it produces its Land Use Framework and updated environmental improvement plan.

Making the case for the Green Belt

We were pleased to see commitment to a brownfield first approach to development in the Labour manifesto. This should result in less greenfield development, including in peri-urban and Green Belt areas that tend be under most pressure. However, previous government commitments to the same have not resulted in a significant increase in delivery on brownfield so we have had and continue to have a focus on putting pressure on government to make that a reality and forwarding solutions to enable it.

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Seeking to influence the quality of public debate relating to the Green Belt, we collaborated with the King’s Foundation to publish a series of essays celebrating what the Green Belt has to offer. This ‘Perspectives on the Urban Edge’ collection featured many influential voices, from Baroness Barbara Young to Dieter Helm, professor of economic policy at Oxford University.

As part of work to influence planning reforms in the autumn, we collaborated with Wildlife and Countryside Link to get widespread agreement in the sector on policy matters relating to the Green Belt. The joint briefing sets out widely supported ideas for how we can maximise the potential of the Green Belt for people, nature and climate and we continue to use this in our advocacy. We also carried out further research into the value of Green Belt land for farming, with the headline results being reported in The Times newspaper in December.

c) Grow Build our movement

Broadening CPRE’s appeal and increasing the amount and diversity of our membership and income continue to be one of our major priorities.

Supporter Engagement

Our brand and digital marketing activity is central to reaching and engaging larger audiences, broadening our appeal and ensuring supporters return to CPRE with purpose:

Brand awareness

Prompted brand awareness averaged 17.5%, meaning that when specifically asked whether they know a number of charity brand, this proportion of public survey respondents agree they have heard of CPRE. This represents a stable picture against previous years. Across 2025 we will plan to maximise the opportunity of our centenary year in 2026 to start steadily and significantly increasing brand awareness.

Website performance

The website performance was a mixed picture compared to 2023. The number of views increased by 15% and overall sessions remained strong, 10% ahead of our target for the year. However, average engagement time fell by 65% and there were 61% fewer downloads. However, we have been transitioning to a digital first route with all content which will correlate to lower downloads over time. The Board has allocated resource for a website refresh in 2025 to enable developments to maximise the opportunity of the centenary for digital engagement.

Social media reach and engagement

This year, our social media presence saw significant growth, with impressions reaching 6.3 million, up 50% from last year, driven by a peak in July from our Facebook Ad membership campaign. Engagements increased by 16% to 195,935, maintaining a strong engagement rate of 3.1%, which aligns with the industry standard of 2- 5% and reflects our audience’s active interaction with our organic content. We also saw 27,629 clicks through to our website and to read more of our content and a follower growth of 2,296, with 70% of new followers coming from Instagram. We also saw a decline of 859 followers on X, primarily toward the end of the year, reflecting broader trends affecting the platform under Elon Musk’s ownership.

Income

2024 has been a very positive year in terms of income for CPRE, largely driven by strength in Legacy income and that from our supporters and members. Overall our income was £0.6m higher than 2023. Legacy income continued to be a major driver, in our financial success in 2023, as it delivered £1.1m in excess of the prior year income.

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Membership and Income Generation

Our appeal income from Individual supporters, saw a £47k decline compared to the previous year. People across the UK continue to be affected by the cost-of-living crisis with many charities experiencing dips in their voluntary income and increased loss of supporter numbers. We were not exempt from this with membership numbers declining to 16,808. We are grateful for all the support that our supporters and members have been able to provide, especially in these continuing difficult times.

During the year we ran both face to face and digital membership recruitment campaigns. These campaigns were a mixed success. We have been reviewing the lessons learned from both these campaigns and are looking at a way to improve the offer to members, whilst also looking at way to reduce the costs of servicing the membership.

Philanthropy and Partnerships

As mentioned earlier we continued with our important work on hedgerows and started phase 5 of our Hedgerow Heroes project, thanks to the generous support of our corporate partner MW Tops Wildlife Conservation Fund, who gave £375k funding towards projects to plant and restore hedgerows across the country and support our communications work promoting the value of hedgerows to the countryside.

In 2024 we launched our first ever President’s Circle, securing 7 members, who have committed to support us into our Centenary year and beyond. We also set up our first ever Development Board, which will steer us towards increasing fundraising opportunities through our Centenary year in 2026.

We also received an additional generous grant of £100,000 from the Trustees of the Nancy Bateman Charitable Trust. This donation was awarded to help fund a number of projects including the centenary digital Domesday Book and the writing and launch of a report on the Green Belt in partnership with The King’s Foundation. We are grateful to the many individuals and trusts and foundations who fund our work across a variety of our core areas including planning, Green Belt and general advocacy.

Our strategy remains to diversify and increase other income sources to reduce the impact of fluctuations in various income streams although this remains a slow process, highly influenced by changes in the economy, with our Centenary in 2026 being a strong opportunity to accelerate this further.

Volunteers

For the first time, over 2,000 volunteers are active across the movement. We’ve been focusing on attracting a higher number of young volunteers by offering more flexible, short term roles and advertising more widely. A pilot of a new online campaign activist (OCA) role saw 117 people take part, the vast majority of which were under 35 years of age. The OCAs undertook micro-volunteering tasks in the run up to the General Election to support our campaign activity.

The Volunteering and Participation team also support local CPRE charities to develop new initiatives in their area, for example the dark skies project (18 people) and the water pollution citizen science (473 people) project with CPRE Herefordshire. CPRE Hampshire launched a new meadows project in Winchester which attracted 34 volunteers in just 3 weeks. Our Hedgerow Heroes project continues to attract new volunteers, as mentioned above.

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The online induction continues to provide a valuable opportunity to meet and support new volunteers at the start of their journey with CPRE. Over five events in 2024, 104 new volunteers and staff members attended, giving them a chance to meet the CEO and Policy and Advocacy Director, as well as find out about support available to them. The online induction triggers the start of an onboarding journey for volunteers that continues into a variety of networking, communications and support resources that we will continue to develop and improve. A survey of volunteers in autumn 2024 helped identify areas of improvement which will drive our plans for 2025.

Network engagement

Ways to bring local and national CPREs together continue to be a priority. Last year we launched the network intranet to make shared information and support more accessible on demand. We are pleased that 537 network volunteers and staff now have access to it, increasing by over 400 since 2023. We have recently carried out an accessibility audit on the network intranet that is proving helpful in guiding further developments. There have been 49 packed editions of our weekly e-newsletter Network News to network staff and volunteers sharing news, opportunities to join in and sources of support. The informal networking and webinars remain popular, with over 140 people taking part through the year. The framework for network engagement was updated and shared at the Network Assembly.

Governance

The regular cycles of meetings continued, for the most part hybrid. The National Assembly met four times in 2024 and has been a valuable forum for debate and decisions about matters of shared concern across the network.

In July we held our Annual General Meeting at which our new President, Mary-Ann Ochota, was elected.

Diversity & Inclusion

We have continued our journey to ensure our national office is a diverse and inclusive work environment. Actions are captured in a refreshed Staff ED&I plan and include improving reporting on diversity for staff and volunteers and setting targets for recruiting staff and volunteers from backgrounds under-represented by CPRE (identified in our leadership statement). We continued to build awareness of diversity and inclusion in 2024 with training provided for all managers and the launch of our ED&I Toolkit. We were pleased to be able to launch an Allyship Resource Group to better hear staff experience and work with the Senior Leadership Team to deliver the ED&I plan. The Allyship Group is now also engaging with colleagues in the Network.

We continue to participate with other environmental charities in contributing to the annual RACE report and as part of our ED&I plan have taken steps to implement some of the actions recommended in the RACE Report Transparency card.

For the first time in 2024, we included a diversity section in our annual staff survey, which has both informed goals for representation and encouraged us to broaden the focus of the ED&I plan, and in particular to build understanding of neurodiversity.

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IT Upgrade

By the end of Q2 the CRM was operational and branches had access to their membership data. Work continues to integrate it with our other key systems. The roll out to our local CPRE’s is expected in 2025. This will allow better access to data by local CPRE’s and for members and supporters to manage their own data on line.

Our Staff

We have seen 12 months of significantly improved staff retention as the new leadership beds in. Constructive negotiations with Community trade union enabled a pay agreement to be reached meeting the needs of both staff and the Charity in a timely manner. Our benefits offer and focus on wellbeing was further improved by the introduction of volunteering leave. The annual staff survey as ever highlighted areas for improvement and as a result we have focused on improving cross-team working and further supporting staff development. We have commenced work to capture the above positive developments in an employee value proposition that will support staff attraction and retention and articulate what it means to work for CPRE.

Commitment to Fossil Free

CPRE continued its process of becoming fossil free. With the office move in 2022 we gained control over our supply of electricity. Our electricity contract is now 100% renewable from wind and hydro assets.

CPRE does not have direct investments in oil extraction companies.

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Strategic Performance Results 2024

The Strategic performance measures, summarised below, gives a top-level view of progress on the most important measures of progress against the plan. They need to be taken together with the qualitative reports above to see a full picture of what’s going well and where challenges remain.

These indicators are used throughout the year by the Board of Trustees to keep abreast of progress and provide early warning of any areas which requires attention.

Diversity of income and membership

These monitor our strategy of growing & diversifying our income. One of our key income streams is membership which is determined in part by the number of members we recruit.

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----- Start of picture text -----
Number of new members
Target recruited Actual
New New
Members Members
1000 10% 902
90%
90%
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Influence and Reach

These measures give a basic indication of how effective our digital and non-digital means of communications are in conveying our messages to people. Media coverage includes all forms of media. Parliamentary mentions is the number of times CPRE’s name is mentioned in parliament. We aim to improve on these year on year.

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People

People, both in terms of staff and volunteers are a key asset to CPRE. High staff turnover is a hidden cost for CPRE as it takes resources to recruit and train new staff, but we are aware that as a relatively small organisation there is limited scope for career progression particularly for junior staff. With our new People Lead we have implemented policies and procedures to improve staff retention particularly around career development.

The Volunteer team at CPRE are mainly working with our network of local CPRE’s to help them recruit additional people to support our work at a local level. The higher number of volunteers represents a larger volume of people who want to be involved with CPRE.

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4. FINANCIAL REVIEW

The financial results of the charity’s activities for the year to 31 December 2024 are set out in the Statement of Financial Activities and supporting notes.

Income and Fundraising Performance

This year total income increased compared to 2023 by £0.6m – mainly due to an increase in legacies. Membership, (net of the local share) and Committed Giving income was maintained at £1m and we are thankful for those loyal supporters. Funding from charitable trusts and companies was lower to the previous year despite ongoing funding for our Hedgerow work and a generous donation from the Nancy Bateman Charitable Trust for our work on planning.

Expenditure

Total expenditure in 2024 was £4.4m (2023: £4.5m) of which £3.2m was spent on charitable activities (2023: £3.4m), this included our successful campaigning work on Future Countryside and Countryside Next door aims, as well as building our movement which includes continued support to the network.

Financial Policy

The Board recognises the need to keep unrestricted reserves at a level appropriate to the needs of the organisation. The Board reviewed its reserves policy in December 2024, maintaining the target range in line with the policy below and to set the context for the 2024 budget. CPRE’s reserves policy is:

‘The Board adopts a risk-based approach to reserves. Its policy is to hold unrestricted free reserves, in a range of £1.9m – £3.6m. This reflects the Trustees’ current appraisal of working capital requirements, the risks in CPRE’s sources of income, an allowance for unplanned expenditure, and a degree of funding for key investments during the next planning cycle’.

For the purpose of its policy, CPRE has defined its reserves as its unrestricted free reserves, which constitute total reserves less restricted, endowment reserves and designated funds.

Therefore, our policy focuses on our unrestricted free reserves. These were £5.5m at the year-end (£4.6m in 2023) and represent a strong base to provide resilience against the financial risks faced by the organisation.

Further information on CPRE’s funds is contained in note 19 to the accounts.

Table: Unrestricted Free Reserves

Table: Unrestricted Free Reserves
2024 2023
£’000 £’000
Total Reserves 8,640 6,160
Less: Restricted Reserves (800) (618)
Less: Endowments Reserves (151) (147)
Less: Designated Reserves (2,142) (835)
Unrestricted Free Reserves 5,547 4,560

The year-end total of £5.5m is above our target range of £1.9m to £3.6m. The Trustees are aware that this comfortable position is due to generous one-off legacies and are conscious that the underlying position of the charity is still of an operating deficit. The Board have made a decision to bring reserves back towards the target range over the next two to three years and have approved a number of time bound initiatives, in particular around our upcoming centenary. In addition, the Board have signed an 18-month Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Bayes Business school to seek to generate additional income for the organisation. Whilst the outputs of this partnership are unknown at present, it is likely that further investment will be required to bring

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to market any ideas generated. The break clause of the office lease in 2026 offers the possibility of using the free unrestricted reserves to potentially make a capital purchase of the next office. The reserves will also be required to underwrite the underlying deficit until the change to the business model can be made.

Having assessed the charity’s financial position, its plans for the foreseeable future, the risks to which it is exposed and the detailed cash projections, the Trustees are satisfied that it remains appropriate to prepare the statements on a going concern basis.

Investment Policy and Performance

During 2024 all CPRE’s investments were managed by CCLA.

For the year to 31 December 2024 the total portfolio has increased by 188% (2023: increased by 183%) as we added a net £1m (2023: added £500k). Investments made a gain on investment in 2024 amounting to £75k (2023: £52k gain).

The main fund remains with the CCLA Cash fund.

CPRE’s prime ethical consideration is to identify any obvious conflicts of interest between its objectives and the objectives/activities of any company whose shares may be acquired directly for the purpose of investment. We had no direct investment in company shares at 31 December 2024.

Fundraising Approach

CPRE undertakes fundraising activity to its supporters via direct mail, telephone and email in line with the Fundraising Code of Practice set by the Fundraising Regulator. Our fundraising promise, which is available on our website to reassure supporters of our approach, is

‘When you support us by becoming a member, campaigner or donor you can be sure of the following:

CPRE is registered with the Fundraising Regulator and adheres to the standards of the Fundraising Code of Practice. Thirteen complaints (2023: 27) about fundraising activity were received by CPRE national office in 2024 and they were promptly resolved without the need for escalation to the regulator.

Risk Management

The Board recognises its responsibilities in terms of managing risk and has systems in place to ensure that the risks faced by the charity are identified, assessed, managed and monitored.

The Senior Leadership Team and all staff assess risks as part of all significant project management. The Board review current material risks at each Board meeting during the year and a thorough review of potential risks annually. This was undertaken in December 2024.

The main categories of risk are:

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The Board considers the gross risk before taking into account internal and external controls and the residual net risk after these internal and external controls are applied. The major net risks relate to external factors beyond CPRE’s control; the most significant are considered to be:

The most significant internal risks prior to our internal controls are considered to be:

Our internal controls are intended to manage rather than eliminate risks and to give reasonable rather than absolute assurances.

There are only two significant residual internal net risks, all of which are assessed as acceptable:

The system of internal control includes:

The scheme of delegation sets out the delegated authority of the Finance Committee, the Policy and Campaigns Committee, the Nominations Committee and the principal officers. The day-to-day management is delegated to the Chief Executive, the principal officers and other CPRE staff.

5. FUTURE PLANS

Our strategic aims 2020-26 as set out in section 2 (c) on page 3 demonstrate what we are going to do at national CPRE in the remaining two years to move us towards our vision of a beautiful and thriving countryside for all. The strategic aims set our priorities and where we are going to allocate our resources during this period. All our plans and projects contribute towards the achievement of these aims.

In practice our strategy means developing new projects with partners from the CPRE network and externally, to develop, set out and promote solutions through research, policy, campaign and practical work. It means new programmes for volunteering, membership and supporter engagement and capacity-building for our network and their communities. It means presenting to the public and policymakers a vision of positive, sustainable progress for our countryside which can hold its own against the imperatives of growth.

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2025 Priorities

Our operational plan and budget, which sets out the details of what we’re going to do and how we will utilise our resources, have been agreed by the Board and is newly organised around eight programmes for the year:

Strategic Land Use - better use of our finite amount of land for people, planet and nature.

Hedgerow heroes - hedgerows are a vital part of our countryside – and hedgerow heroes makes sure they are restored and expanded.

Grow and diversify our income - increase members and supporters and diversify where our support comes from.

Build to our centenary - develop a programme of projects, events and funding to build towards our centenary in 2026.

Develop our people and organisation - develop a new 10 year strategy and support staff and volunteers to deliver it.

Progress against the operational plan will be measured by management and programme teams and strategic performance measures reviewed by the Board every quarter. The budget with which we will deliver the plan has been agreed by the Board and is in line with our financial strategy and reserves policy. Progress against the budget is monitored alongside the performance measures by the Senior Leadership Team and the Board advised by the Finance sub-committee as described below.

6. STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

a) Legal and Administrative Details

The Campaign to Protect Rural England is a registered charity (number 1089685) and a company limited by guarantee (number 04302973). It was founded in 1926. It is registered in England and its registered office is 15-21 Provost Street, London, N1 7NH. It is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association adopted on 4 October 2001, which were most recently amended on 19 October 2023.

The members of the Trustee Board are Trustees under charity law and Directors under company law. They are also known as Board Members.

CPRE has a wholly owned trading subsidiary, CPRE Enterprises Limited (Company No 4287611), which has been dormant throughout the year.

This report has been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities (SORP FRS102 – 2nd Edition, effective 1 January 2019) and in accordance with the special provisions of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

b) Structure

The CPRE network operates as a network of 42 branches. There are 39 separately constituted branches that operate within the wider CPRE federal structure. As legal entities in their own right, with their own boards of trustees, their results do not form part of these financial statements. While 39 of the branches are separately registered charities, most use the name and branding of CPRE. All deliver broadly similar objectives and receive

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a share of the membership subscriptions from CPRE’s members. Following the revision of the Articles, the Chairs of our branches hold over 80% of the voting rights at our Annual General Meeting.

National CPRE comprises the national office in London and three county groups, Durham, Northumberland and Lincolnshire. These three branches are part of the main charity and their finances are incorporated into the charity financial statements at the end of each year.

The Board believes that the structure of the organisation is a huge strength that gives CPRE both a national presence and a strong and effective grassroots involvement.

General Council

The General Council comprises the voting members of CPRE. The voting members comprise: one person from each branch, one from each county association, Board members and the President.

The Board

The Board is made up of at least five and not more than ten Trustees including the Chair, the Chair of Policy and Campaigns Committee and the Treasurer (known as the “Officers”). It is composed of up to seven Elected Board Members (in addition to the Officers). All Elected Board Members serve a three-year term of office but may be eligible for re-election for a further three-year term. During the year one Board Member, James Lindsay, stepped down and one Board Member Will Rivers retired. Both were replaced at the AGM.

The Charity maintains third party indemnity insurance for the Trustees.

Recruitment of Trustees

Trustees are recruited in accordance with our Articles of Association and the process is undertaken by the Nominations Committee which make recommendations to the Board. All Trustee roles are advertised within the CPRE Network and externally. They are advertised on the basis of seeking to fill skills gaps and to improve the overall diversity on the Board.

All members of the Board have role descriptions and take part in induction programmes, training and development as appropriate.

c) Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations. Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards) and applicable law.

Under company law the Trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of its net incoming/outgoing resources for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charitable company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the

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Companies Act 2006 and the provisions of the charitable company’s constitution. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. The following statements have been affirmed by each of the Trustees of the charitable company:

Sub-Committees

The Board has three sub-committees: the Policy and Campaigns Committee, Finance Committee and the Nominations Committee. The Board sets terms of reference for sub-committees, all of which report directly to the Board.

The purpose of the Policy and Campaigns Committee is to provide a body of expertise to advise the Board and assist staff and Trustees of CPRE in all aspects of its external policy.

The purpose of the Nominations Committee is to select suitable candidates to be nominated for the Board. It is chaired by a member of CPRE’s General Council.

The purpose of the Finance Committee is to ensure CPRE has sufficient and appropriate financial and other resources available for delivery of its operational plan and budgets. It ensures that CPRE operates within the requirements of its constitution, relevant legislation and best practice. It also acts as a Remuneration Committee reviewing reward policies, cost of living wage awards and the remuneration levels of senior staff.

d) Health and Safety

The Board considers managing health and safety and wellbeing of our staff, volunteers, suppliers and visitors a key priority.

The Board is ultimately responsible for compliance with health and safety legislation. The day-to-day responsibility is delegated to the Chief Executive and Director of Finance, People & Performance, who are responsible for compliance, relevant policy development and performance. Health and Safety is a linemanagement responsibility throughout CPRE.

During the course of the year there were no significant accidents or incidents involving members of staff, volunteers, contractors or visitors to our office.

e) Employees and Volunteers

Our staff and volunteers continue to build CPRE’s long-established reputation for professionalism, expertise and quality. They are the reason for our many lobbying and campaigning successes.

CPRE’s volunteers are also highly valued and the Board is grateful for the huge amount of work they do. The work of volunteers in the branches and regional groups is supported by advice and other support from national office, including inductions, training seminars and our events programme.

We support equal opportunities, and recruit and promote employees on the basis of aptitude and ability without discrimination. CPRE seeks to enable disabled employees to play a full role in the organisation. 20

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f) Reward Policy

The pay of the principal officers - see page 22 - is determined by the Board of Trustees. Salaries are benchmarked with those of charities of similar size in terms of income, staff numbers, sector and complexity. The same benefits, including pensions, and terms and conditions apply to the principal officers as all other staff.

All other staff salaries have also been benchmarked with those of charities of similar size in terms of income, staff numbers and complexity. It is expected that the majority of staff will be paid at the median for their role, however there is flexibility of +/- 15% around the median.

All staff salaries will be benchmarked again on a triennial basis. This was last carried out in 2023. During the interim period the Board may approve an annual pay increase subject to an overall affordability criterion.

The Board includes Trustees appointed by our volunteer branch chairs and Trustees with significant pay expertise and knowledge, especially of the charity sector.

All nationally employed staff are paid at least the London Living Wage.

g) Reference and Administrative Details

Management

The Board delegates responsibility for the day-to-day management of CPRE to its Chief Executive. He is aided by the Senior Leadership Team and other senior colleagues.

The present office holders and any past office holders who served during the year, and to the date of signing this Report, are listed below.

Office Holders

President

Mary-Ann Ochota (from July 2024)

Vice Presidents

Fiona Reynolds

Ali Miraj

The Board (Trustees/Directors)

Simon Murray Chair Professor Patricia Broadfoot CBE General Board Member (Vice Chair) Martin Tyler FCCA Treasurer Tony Burton Chair of Policy and Campaigns Committee Will Rivers General Board Member (to July 2024) Reema Khan General Board Member William Donaldson General Board Member Lucy Turvill-Kunisch General Board Member (from July 2024) Matthew O’Connell General Board Member (from July 2024)

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Year ended 31 December 2024 James Lindsay General Board Member (until February 2024)

Sub-Committees of the Board:

Policy and Campaigns Committee

Tony Burton Trustee and committee Chair Simon Murray Trustee Kaley Hart Rowena Swallow Madeleine Barr (until June 2024) Gavin Parker (from June 2024) Gemma Jerome (from June 2024) Holly McIntyre (from June 2024) Janette Ward (from June 2024) Jonathan Clarke (from June 2024)

Finance Committee

Martin Tyler FCCA Trustee and committee Chair Simon Murray Trustee Reema Khan Trustee John Ydlibi FCA Co-optee

Nominations Committee

Reema Khan Trustee and committee Chair Simon Murray Trustee Ron Simpson Network Assembly appointee Hugh Williams Network Assembly appointee Sally Learoyd Network Assembly appointee (from September 2024)

Principal Officers

Roger Mortlock Chief Executive Mark Cornish FCA Director of Finance, People & Performance and Company Secretary Dr Crewenna Dymond Director for Communities and Participation Ruth Evans Director of Fundraising & Supporters Elli Moody Director of Policy, Campaigns & Communications

Professional Advisers:

A list of CPRE’s main professional advisers appears on page 55.

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7. AUDITOR

During the year Sayer Vincent LLP were re-appointed as auditors.

The directors’ annual report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies’ regime.

Approved by the Trustees on 20 March 2025 and signed on their behalf by:

Simon Murray Chair

Martin Tyler FCCA Treasurer

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CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

8. INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT

to the members of Campaign to Protect Rural England

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 December 2024 which comprise the statement of financial activities, balance sheet, statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on Campaign to Protect Rural England’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other Information

The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other

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information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ annual report. We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the statement of trustees’ responsibilities set out in the trustees’ annual report, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our

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opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are set out below.

Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and noncompliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

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A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities . This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Fleur Holden (Senior statutory auditor)

21 March 2025

for and on behalf of Sayer Vincent LLP, Statutory Auditor

110 Golden Lane, LONDON, EC1Y 0TG

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9. STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

(INCORPORATING AN INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT)

Note
Income from
Donations and legacies
3
Other trading activities
5
Investments
6
Total
Expenditure on
Raising funds
7
Charitable activities
8
Total
Net Income/
(expenditure) before
gains/ (losses) in
investments
Net gains/ (losses) on
investments
Net movement in funds
(being net income
/(expenditure)) for the
year)
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought
forward
Total funds carried
forward		 YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
Unrestricted
Restricted
Endowment
2024
2023
Funds
Funds
Fund
Total
Total
(Restated)
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
6,048
698
-
6,746
6,149
4
-
-
4
3
83
4
-
87
46
6,135
702
-
6,837
6,198
1,231
-
-
1,231
1,155
2,681
520
-
3,201
3,401
3,912
520
-
4,432
4,556
2,223
182
-
2,405
1,642
71
-
4
75
52
2,294
182
4
2,480
1,694
5,395
618
147
6,160
4,466
7,689
800
151
8,640
6,160

All of the charity’s activities are continuing.

There are no gains and losses other than those shown above. The 2023 figures have been restated to reflect the resource allocation against the new strategic priorities.

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10. BALANCE SHEET

AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2024

AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2024
Notes
FIXED ASSETS
Intangible assets
12
Tangible assets
13
Investments
14
Total fixed assets
CURRENT ASSETS
Debtors
16
Cash at bank and in hand
Total current assets
Liabilities:
Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year
17
Net current assets
Total assets less current liabilities
Creditors: Amounts falling due after one year
18
Total net assets
The funds of the charity:
Unrestricted funds
20
Restricted funds
21
Endowment fund
22
Total charity funds		 2024
£’000
2023
£’000
356
399
31
40
2,290
1,215
2,677
1,654
3,446
2,957
2,940
1,973
6,386
4,930
(396)
(367)
5,990
4,563
8,667
6,217
(27)
(57)
8,640
6,160
7,689
5,395
800
618
151
147
8,640
6,160

The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Board and were signed on its behalf on 20 March 2025.

Simon Murray

Chair

Martin Tyler FCCA Treasurer

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11. STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

Reconciliation of net income to net cash flow from operating activities
Net income/ (expenditure) for the year
Adjustments for:
Depreciation charges
(Gains)/ Losses on investments
Dividends and interest from investments
Increase in debtors
Decrease /(Increase) in regional cash balances
(Decrease) in creditors
Net cash provided by operating activities
Cash flows from investing activities:
Dividends and interest from investments
Bank and other interest received
Purchase of property, plant and equipment
Purchase of investments
Net cash used in investing activities
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year
Cash and cash equivalents at 1 January 2024
Cash and cash equivalents at 31 December 2024		 2024
2023
£’000
£’000
2,480
1,694
63
39
(75)
(52)
(87)
(46)
(489)
(1,509)
-
254
-
(79)
1,892
301
4
4
83
42
(12)
(154)
(1,000)
(500)
(925)
(608)
967
(307)
1,973
2,280
2,940
1,973

The Charity has no debt, therefore the movements in net debt are all shown in the main cashflow statement.

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12. NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

1. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES

a) Charity Information

The Campaign to Protect Rural England is a company limited by guarantee (No. 04302973) and a registered charity (No 1089685) in England & Wales. The registered office is 15-21 Provost Street, London, N1 7NH.

b) Basis of Accounting and Statement of Compliance

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, with the exception of fixed asset investments, which are included at their fair value at the balance sheet date. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice for Charities (SORP 2015) (Second Edition, effective 1 January 2019), the Companies Act 2006 and Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).

The Trustees in developing the corporate strategy have also developed a multi-year financial model to underpin the corporate strategy. Whilst within the strategy there are risks associated with achieving the fundraising income, there are no material uncertainties related to events or conditions which would cast doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern.

Consolidated accounts have not been prepared, as the operation of the wholly owned trading subsidiary, CPRE Enterprises Limited, was dormant in the year and the net assets were not material to CPRE at the balance sheet date.

The principal accounting policies and estimation techniques are as follows:

c) Local CPREs

Our partners in the CPRE network, the local CPRE organisations, receive a share of the membership subscription paid in respect of members assigned to them, which includes tax recovered from gift aid. The majority are autonomous, separately registered charities and produce their own financial statements, which are not consolidated. Three are part of national CPRE (Lincolnshire, County Durham and Northumberland). These are accounted for within these financial statements.

d) Income

Voluntary income and membership subscriptions are recorded when received at the national office.

Legacies are recognised when the conditions of entitlement, probability and measurement are met. Each bequest is recognised once a reasonable estimate of its value can be made and providing there is no evidence of any significant contentious claims against the deceased’s estate. Where CPRE is left part of the residue of an estate, the deceased’s Will, initial statements of assets and liabilities and draft estate accounts are used to

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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

calculate the estimated value of the bequest. This estimate is only recognised as income once the executors have proved the Will (i.e. obtained probate). Probate values will normally be used to estimate value.

Income from government and other grants, whether ‘capital’ grants or ‘revenue’ grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received, and the amount can be measured reliably.

Merchandise income are accounted for on an accruals basis.

On receipt, donated gifts, professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the society would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

e) Intangible Fixed Assets

Items over £1,000 are capitalised. Intangible Fixed assets are stated at historical cost less accumulated amortisation.

Amortisation of Intangible fixed assets is provided at rates calculated to amortise the cost of the assets over their anticipated useful lives and is charged on a monthly basis from purchase. The rates used during the year were as follows:

CRM Database 10% straight line

f) Tangible Fixed Assets

Items over £1,000 are capitalised. Fixed assets are stated at cost less accumulated depreciation. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value in use.

Depreciation of fixed assets is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost of fixed assets over their anticipated useful lives and is charged on a monthly basis from purchase. The rates used during the year were as follows:

Leasehold improvements 10% straight line Furniture and equipment 25% or 33 1/3% straight line Computer equipment 33 1/3% straight line

g) Fixed Asset Investments

Fixed asset investments are stated at fair value. Investment income is included in the Statement of Financial Activities on a receivable basis. Realised and unrealised gains and losses on investment assets are shown in the Statement of Financial Activities. Realised gains are based on disposal proceeds compared with either opening market value or cost if acquired during the year.

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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

h) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of 95 days or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

i) Operating Leases

Operating lease rentals are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

j) Fund Accounting

Restricted funds are those the use of which is restricted by the conditions imposed by the donors.

Endowment funds are those where the income can be spent but the capital element retained.

General funds are those which are available for the general advancement of CPRE’s objectives.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the Trustees for particular purposes.

k) Allocation of Costs

Overheads and support costs have been allocated to the cost headings in the Statement of Financial Activities as follows:

An estimate of staff time spent on each activity during the year, together with the individual’s salary cost, has been used to calculate the actual cost of staff time spent on each activity. These staff cost figures have been used to calculate a percentage figure, which has been used to apportion the total overhead and support costs.

Support costs include the costs of Human Resources and IT, Finance and Governance. Overhead costs include rent, depreciation and office costs.

Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis when a liability is incurred.

l) Raising Funds

The cost of raising funds includes the production and postage costs of appeals and raffles, the marketing and promotional costs of all our fundraising programmes, the costs of members and supporter recruitment and the administrative cost of processing donations.

m) Charitable Activities

Charitable activity costs include all expenditure incurred in direct pursuit of CPRE’s charitable objectives.

These include all policy work, development of the branches and regional groups and the production of policy information about its work.

It also includes Membership and Supporter services including the materials, administrative and processing costs for member and supporter services.

33

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

n) Taxation

VAT

Irrecoverable VAT is included under the relevant expense headings. In 2024 this amounted to £139k (2023: £166k).

Corporation Tax

CPRE is a registered charity and can claim exemption from Corporation Tax on income and gains, which are applied for charitable purposes under the Corporation Taxes Act 2010.

o) Pension Schemes

CPRE operates defined contribution pension schemes for all qualifying employees. The assets of the schemes are held in separate funds administered by independent providers.

34

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

2. DETAILED COMPARATIVES FOR THE STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

Note
Income from
Donations and legacies
3
Other trading activities
5
Investments
6
Total
Expenditure on
Raising funds
7
Charitable activities
8
Total
Net Income/
(expenditure) before
gains / (losses
investments
Net gains on investments
12
Net movement in funds
(being net income
/(expenditure)) for the
year
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought
forward
Total funds carried
forward		 Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
2023
Funds
Funds
Fund
Total
(Restated)
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
5,156
993
-
6,149
3
-
-
3
42
4
-
46
5,201
997
-
6,198
1,155
-
-
1,155
2,664
737
-
3,401
3,819
737
-
4,556
1,382
260
-
1,642
39
-
13
52
1,421
260
13
1,694
3,974
358
134
4,466
5,395
618
147
6,160

35

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

3. INCOME FROM DONATIONS AND LEGACIES

Unrestricted Funds
Membership subscriptions
Less:Branch share of subscriptions (note 1c)
Legacies
Appeals
Charitable Trusts and Companies (note 4)
Committed giving
Major personal donations
General donations
Charitable Activities
Give as You Earn donations
Branch Income
Regional Income
Total Unrestricted Funds
Restricted Funds
Charitable Trusts and Companies (note 4)
Legacies
Charitable Activities
Total Restricted Funds
Total income from Donations & Legacies		 2024
2023
£’000
£’000
1,333
1,373
(557)
(598)
776
775
4,576
3,660
203
250
119
85
193
207
73
49
77
108
25
-
3
4
3
15
-
3
6,048
5,156
487
984
211
-
-
9
698
993
6,746
6,149

At 31 December 2024, our estimate of the value of legacies that had been bequeathed to CPRE, but which had not been included in the financial statements, was £50k (2023: £632k). None of these bequests has a remaining life interest.

36

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

4. GENERAL, CORPORATE AND TRUST DONATIONS

2024
Nancy Bateman Charitable Trust
MW TOPS Wildlife Conservation Fund (ESG TOPS Foundation)
Constance Trust
European Climate Foundation
Donations less than £10,000		 Unrestricted
Funds
Restricted
Funds
Total
2024
£’000
£’000
£’000
-
100
100
-
375
375
50
-
50
-
12
12
69
-
69
119
487
606
Comparative 2023
2023
Nancy Bateman Charitable Trust
MW TOPS Wildlife Conservation Fund (ESG TOPS
Foundation)
Groundwork UK
Scouloudi Foundation
Donations less than £10,000		 Unrestricted
Funds
Restricted
Funds
Total
2023
£’000
£’000
£’000
-
500
500
-
451
451
-
19
19
15
-
15
70
14
84
85
984
1,069

37

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

5. OTHER TRADING ACTIVITIES

Other income
CPRE publications
All other trading activity is unrestricted.
6.
INVESTMENTS
UK listed securities – restricted
Bank interest - unrestricted		 2024
2023
£’000
£’000
2
-
2
3
4
3
2024
2023
£’000
£’000
4
4
83
42
87
46

7. RAISING FUNDS

Fundraising costs:
Direct costs
Employment costs
Support costs
Total		 2024
2023
(Restated)
£’000
£’000
338
193
671
750
222
212
1,231
1,155

38

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED )

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

8. ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURE

Charitable activities
Countryside Next Door
Future Countryside
Build Our Movement
Total
Charitable
activities
Raising funds		 Direct
Employment
Costs
Other Direct
Costs
Support
Costs
2024
Total
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
632
540
209
1,381
795
136
275
1,206
236
313
65
614
1,663
989
549
3,201
338
222
671
1,231
2,001
1,211
1,220
4,432

ANALYSIS OF SUPPORT COSTS BY CHARITABLE ACTIVITY

Countryside Next Door
Future Countryside
Build Our Movement
2024 Total charitable
support costs		 Overheads
IT & HR
Finance
Governance
Total
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
102
49
42
16
209
134
64
55
22
275
32
15
13
5
65
268
128
110
43
549

39

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

COMPARISON TO 2023

OMPARISON TO 2023
Direct Employment Other Support Costs 2023
Costs Direct Total
Costs (Restated)
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Charitable activities
Countryside Next Door 622 702 227 1,551
Future Countryside 733 236 270 1,239
Build Our Movement 205 363 43 611
Total Charitable activities 1,560 1,301 540 3,401
Raising funds 750 193 212 1,155
2,256 1,494 752 4,556
Overheads IT & HR Finance Governance Total
(Restated)
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Countryside Next Door 108 50 41 28 227
Future Countryside 129 58 49 34 270
Build Our Movement 20 9 8 6 43
2023 Total charitable 257 117 98 68 540
support costs

40

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

9. EMPLOYEE INFORMATION

The average monthly headcount was 45 (2023: 45). The average number of employees, on a full-time equivalent basis was as follows:

Full time
Part time (FTE)
Employee costs were as follows:
Salaries
Redundancy/ Termination costs fully paid and settled
National Insurance
Employer’s Contribution to defined contribution pension scheme		 2024
2023
No
No
38
33
5
8
43
41
£’000
£’000
2,224
2,234
23
-
218
184
131
113
2,596
2,531

CPRE operates a Group Personal Pension Plan that all members of staff are eligible to join after the completion of their probationary service period. CPRE contributes 7% of eligible employees’ salaries to their pension plans. 44 members of staff (2023: 40) were members of the Group Personal Pension Plan at the end of the year. All of the higher paid employees were members of the Group Personal Pension Plan. Contributions into the Plan for these employees were £28k (2023: £18k). The total value of employee benefits received by key management personnel, (our principal officers (see page 22) was £506k (2023: £339k).

Employees paid £60,000 or more:

Employees paid £60,000 or more:
2024 2023
£100,000 - £110,000 1 -
£80,000-£89,999 3 -
£70,000 - £79,999 1 1
£60,000 - £69,999 - 2

In 2023 three of the higher paid employees were recruited part way through the year. Where applicable the proportion of their earnings are shown in the table above. 2024 represents a full year of service for the higher paid employees.

41

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

10. TRUSTEES’ REMUNERATION AND EXPENSES

None of the Trustees received any remuneration during the year (2023: none). Travelling expenses reimbursed to 4 (2023:6) Trustees during the year amounted to £2,641 (2023: £2,778).

11. NET INCOME/ (EXPENDITURE) FOR THE YEAR

2024 2023
This is stated after charging/ (crediting): £’000 £’000
Depreciation 22 22
Amortisation 43 16
Operating lease rental:
Property 202 204
Other 1 1
Auditor’s Remuneration (excluding VAT):
Audit 21 21

42

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

12. INTANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

Cost
At 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024
Amortisation
At 1 January 2024
Charge for the year
At 31 December 2024
Net book value
At 31 December 2024
At 31 December 2023		 CRM
System
Total
£’000
£’000
415
415
16
16
43
43
59
59
356
356
399
399

43

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

13. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

Cost
At 1 January 2024
Additions
Disposals
At 31 December 2024
Depreciation
At 1 January 2024
Charge for the year
Disposals
At 31 December 2024
Net book value
At 31 December 2024
At 31 December 2023		 Furniture
Leasehold
Computer
and
Improvements
Equipment
Equipment
Total
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
101
294
34
429
-
12
-
12
(101)
(220)
(8)
(329)
-
86
26
112
101
268
20
389
-
15
7
22
(101)
(222)
(7)
(330)
-
61
20
81
-
25
6
31
-
26
14
40

All assets are held for charitable purposes.

44

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

14. INVESTMENTS

Value at 1 January 2024
Additions
Investment gains
Value at 31 December 2024		 Listed
Total
Investments
£’000
£’000
1,215
1,215
1,000
1,000
75
75
2,290
2,290

The Charity’s listed investments represent its only financial assets measured at fair value.

15. TRADING SUBSIDIARY

CPRE Enterprises Limited

The organisation has a wholly owned subsidiary registered in England, CPRE Enterprises Limited. CPRE Enterprises Limited has been dormant throughout 2024 and 2023.

Summarised Balance Sheet of CPRE Enterprises Limited 2024 2023
£ £
Cash at bank 2 2
Called up share capital 2 2

45

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

16. DEBTORS
2024		 2023
£’000 £’000
Accrued legacy income 3,209 2,601
Accrued Income 79 169
Prepayments 84 102
Other debtors 74 85
3,446 2,957
Included within Other debtors is £51k (2023 : £51k) which relates to the rent deposit on Provost Street which
is recoverable after more than one year.
17. CREDITORS:amounts falling due within one year 2024 2023
£’000 £’000
Share of subscriptions owed to branches and regional groups 138 147
Accruals and deferred income 62 73
Trade creditors 91 53
Taxation and social security 58 50
Pension schemes 17 14
Accrued rent 30 30
396 367
18. CREDITORS:amounts falling due after more than one year 2024 2023
£’000 £’000
Accrued rent 27 57

46

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

19. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS

General Funds
Designated Funds
Total Unrestricted Funds
Restricted Funds
Endowment Fund
At 31 December 2024		 Tangible
Net
Total
Fixed
Other
Net
Assets
Investments
Assets
Assets
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
-
2,140
3,407
5,547
387
-
1,755
2,142
387
2,140
5,162
7,689
-
-
800
800
-
151
-
151
387
2,291
5,962
8,640

COMPARATIVE 2023

ARATIVE 2023
General Funds
Designated Funds
Total Unrestricted Funds
Restricted Funds
Endowment Fund
At 31 December 2023		 Tangible
Net
Total
Fixed
Other
Net
Assets
Investments
Assets
Assets
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
-
1,068
3,492
4,560
438
-
397
835
438
1,068
3,889
5,395
-
-
618
618
-
147
-
147
438
1,215
4,507
6,160

47

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
20. Unrestricted Funds
Designated Funds
Strategic
Collaboration
Fund for the CPRE Network
Legacy fund for work in
North Yorkshire
Funds held by local groups
Legacy fund for work in
Surrey
Dilapidations
Centenary Support
Grow Income
Technology
Campaigns Support
Knowledge
Transfer
Partnership
Net Book Value Fixed
Assets
Total Designated Funds
General Funds
Total Unrestricted Funds		 1 Jan
2024
Income
& Gains
Expenditure
& Losses
Transfer
from
General
Funds
31 Dec
2024
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
30
-
-
(30)
-
284
-
(9)
-
275
83
5
-
-
88
-
-
-
230
230
-
-
-
100
100
-
-
-
468
468
-
-
-
228
228
-
-
-
235
235
-
-
-
55
55
-
-
-
76
76
438
-
-
(51)
387
835
5
(9)
1,311
2,142
4,560
6,201
(3,903)
(1,311)
5,547
5,395
6,206
(3,912)
-
7,689

Purposes of Designated Funds

Strategic Collaboration Fund for the CPRE Network is to encourage local CPRE branches on collaborative projects. This has now finished.

Legacy fund for work in North Yorkshire. This will be spent when suitable projects are identified with our North Yorkshire branch.

Funds held by local groups which are part of National CPRE. These will be spent when suitable projects are identified by those groups.

Legacy fund for work in Surrey. This will be spent when suitable projects are identified with our Surrey branch.

Dilapidations relate to costs of vacating the London office and the end of the lease.

48

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

Centenary Support relates to the programme of event and projects to celebrate our centenary in 2026.

Grow Income is a fund to help grow and diversify our income.

The Technology fund is for the update and development of our digital infrastructure including the website and will be spent in 2025/6.

Campaigns Support relates to investment in the better planning coalition work and will be utilised over the next year.

Knowledge Transfer Partnership relates to the 2 years partnership with Bayes Business School.

49

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023

20. Unrestricted Funds -
Comparative
Designated Funds
Strategic
Collaboration
Fund for the CPRE Network
Legacy fund for work in
North Yorkshire
Funds
held
by
region
groups
Net Book Value Fixed
Assets
Total Designated Funds
General Funds
Total Unrestricted Funds		 1 Jan
2023
Income
& Gains
Expenditure
& Losses
Transfer
from
General
Funds
31 Dec
2023
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
30
-
-
-
30
284
-
-
-
284
254
-
(171)
-
83
323
-
-
115
438
891
-
(171)
115
835
3,083
5,240
(3,648)
(115)
4,560
3,974
5,240
(3,819)
-
5,395

21. RESTRICTED FUNDS

RESTRICTED FUNDS
CPRE Mark
European Climate Foundation
Nancy Bateman Charitable Trust
Lake District
CPRE Lincolnshire
MW TOPS Wildlife Conservation Fund
Total restricted funds		 Balance at
Income
Expenditure
Balance at
1 January and Gains
& Losses
31 December
2024
2024
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
45
4
-
49
-
12
(12)
-
476
100
(103)
473
-
210
-
210
33
1
(1)
33
64
375
(404)
35
618
702
(520)
800

Purposes of Restricted Funds

50

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

Comparative 2023
CPRE Mark
The Underwood Trust
Groundwork UK
The Peacock Charitable Trust
Foundation for Integrated Transport
Nancy Bateman Charitable Trust
CPRE Lincolnshire
CPRE Nottinghamshire
CPRE Derbyshire
The Bedford Road Charitable Trust
ESG TOPS Foundation
The John Ellerman Foundation
European Climate Foundation
Small grants each under £5,000
Total restricted funds		 Balance at
Income
Expenditure
Balance at
1 January and Gains
& Losses
31 December
2023
2023
£’000
£’000
£’000
£’000
41
4
-
45
3
-
(3)
-
-
19
(19)
-
6
-
(6)
-
16
6
(22)
-
-
500
(24)
476
33
-
-
33
-
4
(4)
-
-
5
(5)
-
8
5
(13)
-
158
451
(545)
64
13
-
(13)
-
78
-
(78)
-
2
3
(5)
-
358
997
(737)
618

51

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

52

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

22. ENDOWMENT FUND

Balance at Investment Balance at
Gains/
1 January Transfers (losses) 31 December
2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Endowment Fund (Colonel Hill) 147 - 4 151
Comparative 2023 Balance at Investment Balance at
Gains/
1 January Transfers (losses) 31 December
2023 2023
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Endowment Fund (Colonel Hill) 134 - 13 147

The Permanent Endowment Fund was established by a donation in 1997. The income from the Fund is used to fund the CPRE Mark which is treated as restricted income, which signifies approval for constructive developments and schemes, which leave the environment protected or enhanced.

53

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

23. OPERATING LEASE COMMITMENTS

At 31 December 2024, CPRE was committed to making the following payments in respect of noncancellable operating leases:

Land & Buildings
Payments due within 1 year
Payments due within 2-5 years (*)
Total Land & building
Other
Payments due within 1 year
Payments due within 2-5 years
Total Other		 2024
2023
£’000
£’000
202
204
185
391
387
595
1
1
2
3
3
4

(*) The lease for 15-21 Provost Street has a break clause in December 2026.

24. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

All Trustees are members of CPRE and pay at least the standard membership subscription.

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CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE - COMPANY NO. 4302973

13. PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS

Honorary Standing Counsel

Paul Brown KC

Legal Panel

Paul Brown KC John Hobson KC Heather Sargent Stephen Whale

Solicitors

Russell Cooke LLP 2 Putney Hill Putney London SW15 6AB Bates Wells 10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1BE

Auditor

Sayer Vincent LLP 110 Golden Lane London EC1Y 0TG

Bankers

NatWest 2a Charing Cross Road London WC2H ONN

Investment Managers

CCLA Senator House 85 Queen Victoria Street London EC4V 4ET

55