RG Spaces
Trustees’ Annual Report & Financial Statements
for the year
1 November 2024
to 31 October 2025
Trustees’ Annual Report for the year ended 31 October 2025
Reference and administrative information
The name of the charity: RG Spaces
Other names by which the charity makes itself known: rgspaces
Charity Commission number: 1160023
The address of the registered o�ices of the charity: 33 Alexandra Rd, Reading RG1 5PG
The names of the charity’s trustees:
Jenny Halstead
Annette Haworth
Adam Koszary
Hannah Lyons
Bank: Barclays, Broad Street, Reading
Insurance: Zurich
Structure, Governance and Management
The nature of the governing document: Constitution
How the charity is constituted: as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
Methods for new trustee recruitment: personal knowledge of relevant professionals Methods for new trustee appointment: by trustees as laid down in the Constitution.
the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and that the public benefit requirement has informed the activities of the charity in the year covered by this report.
Risks projects to support, and their subsequent management through Board members, will result in the e�ective and e�icient use of resources.
Strategy: The Trustees have adopted a strategy of seeking projects which can be worked on jointly with other local organisations or individuals having similar cultural and/or heritage interests. If RG Spaces takes the lead management role in a project, the Trustees’ Board acts as Project Board.
Trustees Induction: Potential new trustees will be invited to meet with trustees and to attend Board meetings. All the Charity’s policies are made available and activities described through the website, together with reference to the Charity Commission’s ‘The Essential Trustee’ documentation.
Training: A Trustee/Volunteer actively monitors the charity press and Charity Commission communications. Relevant local training opportunities are monitored mainly through subscribing to Reading Voluntary Action (RVA) newsletters and the Organisation is a member of RVA.
Objectives
enhancement of publicly accessible spaces in Reading which have educational learning spaces and those provided virtually, through the internet, such as web space, and other media through the provision of human, technical and other resources, grants and other finance;
assisting the publicly accessible work of Reading-based organisations which have these aims through the provision of human, technical and other resources, grants and other finance;
human, technical and other resources, grants and other finance.
Activities
Trustees held two face-to-face meetings and transacted business mainly via email.
This has been a quiet year for the Charity. Our charitable activity has been mainly through voluntary e�ort: supporting projects to which we have previously given grants and participation in community events. A fuller list is given below.
Activity for 2025-2026
The Reading Old Cemetery book project completion is still delayed and we now expect it to complete 1-2Q26.
We will decide whether to participate and/or support related organisations in various community festivals, pending suitable (=a�ordable) insurance being available.
Our participation in Reading Museum’s “Reading’s Digital Revolution” project will continue into early 2026.
We will continue to monitor progress of some local heritage and arts projects to assess whether RG Spaces could/should become more involved, in particular seeking those which could benefit from both a modest grant and from our involvement.
Charitable activities in 2024-2025
Image generated by ChatGPT-4o (18 July 2024 version) on 24 July 2024. Prompt: “An Ancient Greek statue of a woman distorted by technology. The statue features classical Greek elements
Grants – we agreed two modest grants this year and continued to support some given previously.
In 2024 we agreed a grant to Reading Museum towards equipment to help oral history collection. Exhibition creation was led by Reading Museum. After the first year in which 2 modest exhibitions were created (one in Reading Museum, one at the National Computer Museum, Bletchley) the more major exhibition in Reading was launched in March 2025. It runs until the end of 2025. One of our trustees sits on the steering group which will continue to advise on the online presence once the physical exhibition ends.
We had previously agreed a grant to Two Rivers Press towards production of a book ‘Beyond the Junction’ on Reading Old Cemetery. Progress depends on editing which is outside our control. We understand that work has continued fitfully and publication has been delayed by approximately 2 years. One of our trustees is also the book’s illustrator and illustrations were added to this year. The delay has caused us some anxiety but has not a�ected the Charity financially as the grant has not yet been paid out.
In 2024 we agreed a grant for a textile artist’s work which is interpreting local history through the exhibiting of doll-like figures, storytelling, booklet publication and video creation. In June 2025 we helped mount an exhibition, attended by several hundred visitors, over the Whiteknights Studio Trail weekend, We exhibited with the artist at a community festival, marking Jane Austen’s time at school in Reading Abbey Gateway for her 250[th] anniversary.
This year we agreed a grant to the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology enabling them to undertake a project to digitally archive AI-created images and a grant to the Friends of the University or Reading to enable printing of heritage leaflets.
Events - We held a 10[th] Birthday Party at the Acacias for grant holders and others. The local community artist’s butterfly installation was partially dismounted from Henley River and Rowing Museum, resewn and mounted ‘outside RG’ at the St Barbe Museum, Lymington, alongside Reading University’s climate stripes and temperature change information. This was for a fortnight over the solstice in support of museums’ drives towards sustainability awareness. We agreed to support a local artist’s retrospective exhibition to be held at the end of calendar year 2025 with volunteer help and insurance cover.
Online was updated for the exhibition in June.
Fundraising: No active fundraising was planned for or needed this year.
Volunteers: by a community artist on a voluntary basis. Other activity is undertaken by trustees acting as volunteers.
Other resources: Website hosting is provided on an ongoing basis free courtesy of a trustee. Trustees and volunteers use their own IT equipment for the Charity’s work.
Policy on reserves: the Trustees have a policy of holding enough funds to cover any known liability without relying on any future income.
none.
accounts and comply with the charity’s governing document, the Charities Act 2011 and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland published on 16 July 2014.
This report was approved by the Trustees on 28 January 2026 and signed on their behalf by
Name: Jenny Halstead , trustee date: 28 January 2026
Statement of Financial Activities for the year to 31 October 2024
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Note 2025 2024
1 £ £
A Income & endowments
A1 Donations 0 10,000
B expenditure on
B2 Charitable activities 2 -296 8864
Net income/(expenditure) -296 7542
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward 9149 8013
Total funds carried forward 8853 9149
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Balance sheet at 31 October 2025 (charity number: 1160023)
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Note 2025
£
B Current assets
B4 Cash at bank (none in hand) 8853
C Current liabilities
C1 Creditors amount falling due in one year 3 0
Total net assets or liabilities 8853
D The funds of the Charity
D3 Unrestricted funds 8853
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Audit exemption statement
With an income of less than £25,000, the Charity is not required to have either an independent examination or audit. In addition, the constitution does not require an audit and the trustees have agreed that no external scrutiny is needed this year.
Signed Name Jenny Halstead Trustee, on behalf of the trustees
Approved by the trustees on 28/1/2026
Note 1
Note 2
There was no income this year, we continued involvement with existing projects but did not need further funding for them, and some required no funding from us at all.
Insurance, printing, East Reading Festival, stationery £286
Note 3 (Item not yet paid out)
| Note 3 (Item not yet paid out) | |
|---|---|
| Grant towards Beyond the Junctionprinting (project delayed) | £2000 |
| Grant to Ure Museum for archive AI imagesproject | £320 |
| Grant to Friends of UoR forprintingheritage leafets | £200 |
Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (e�ective 1 January 2015)
There have been no related party transactions in the reporting period that require disclosure.
No sta� were employed in the period.