**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
**Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Limited** (a charitable company limited by guarantee)
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2022**
Registered Charity Number: 265239 Company Number: 1090006
1
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Contents**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Chair’s Statement 3
Trustees’ Report 5
Trustees, Officers and Advisers 5
Our Purposes and Activities 6
Achievements and Performance 7
Financial Review 22
Future Plans 26
Structure, Governance and Management 28
Trustees’ Responsibilities in Relation to the Financial Statements 30
Independent Auditor’s Report 31
Financial Statements 34
Statement of Financial Activities for the Year Ended 31 [st] March 2022 34
Balance Sheet as at 31 [st] March 2022 36
Statement of Cash Flows for the Year Ended 31 [st] March 2022 37
Notes to the Financial Statements 38
**----- End of picture text -----**
2
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Chair’s Statement**
Four key climate change indicators set new records in 2021, with the World Meteorological Association reporting that greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification all reached record highs.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published findings which UN Secretary-General António Guterres called ‘a code red for humanity’ – unequivocal evidence of widespread, rapid and intensifying changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system. Many of these changes are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years. Some are ‘irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years’.
Meanwhile, analysis from the Natural History Museum published in October 2021 found that the UK has lost half of its entire biodiversity since the Industrial Revolution.
Another year, another cacophony of klaxon calls for climate and nature.
It’s hard reading, and it’s utterly understandable that anyone who recognises the depth of the problem and the scale of the challenge feels a very real sense of fear for the future – for ourselves, for the most vulnerable, for our children and future generations, for our awe-inspiring natural world.
Turning that fear into action requires a vision of something better, and the tools, knowledge and skills to help turn the vision into reality. That’s where CAT comes in. For nearly 50 years, CAT has focused on solutions to environmental issues – ways of living without fossil fuels, ways of being that can protect and enhance the natural world. From low impact building and renewable energy to sustainable food production and social change, CAT helps people to see what’s possible and gives them the tools to help make change happen.
In 2021-22, we continued scaling up our work, reaching new audiences and working with more
people on the solutions we so desperately need. Our Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab launched a free online resource hub to help councils, communities and businesses take action on the climate and biodiversity emergency, and we offered our first courses in carbon literacy for local authorities. Our Innovation Lab team supported a range of councils and community groups to explore barriers to taking action, and to work together on co-creating solutions.
The CAT Graduate School of the Environment set new records of its own, with a higher student intake than in any previous year – over 250 students joining us to gain an in-depth understanding of environmental issues and potential solutions. Short courses, visitor days out, school, college and university visits, webinars, and more all contributed to inspiring, informing and enabling a wide range of people to take action towards a safer, healthier, fairer future for all as part of a thriving natural world.
And we’re determined to do more, to go further. Every fraction of a degree of warming matters, every species lost is gone forever – that’s why we’re raising our ambitions with a transformational new project, launched at the end of 2021, to scale up our work and reach many more people. Plans include an inspirational new visitor experience to bring solutions to life, a sustainable skills hub to equip the workforce of the future, and expanded digital outreach to reach many more people.
This is the first set of accounts that I’m signing off as Chair of the Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Ltd, although I’ve been involved with CAT for over three decades: as a volunteer, staff member, trustee and Vice Chair. I’m so very proud of the achievements of this incredible organisation, and it is a real privilege to be stepping into the role of Chair at this pivotal moment.
None of the activities and impacts outlined in these pages would have been possible without
3
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
the stalwart support over the past decade of my predecessor as Chair, Mick Taylor, who stepped down at the end of the year, so I’d like to offer my thanks, and the thanks of the Board of Trustees, to Mick for everything that he has done for CAT over many years – _diolch o gallon i ffrind anhygoel_ .
Thank you, too, to all of our incredible staff, volunteers, members, supporters, students, graduates and visitors, who inspire us every day to work together to build the better world that we all know is possible. _Diolch yn fawr iawn_ .
## **Dr Sally Carr**
Chair
Date
4
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Trustees’ Report for the Year Ended 31 March 2022**
## **Trustees, Officers and Advisers**
The trustees present their report and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31[st] March 2022.
Reference and administrative information set out on page 5 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the memorandum 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.
## **Directors and Trustees:**
The Directors of the charitable company are its trustees for the purpose of Charity law and throughout this report are collectively referred to as the trustees. The trustees serving during the year and since the year end were as follows:
- Dr Sara (Sally) Carr (Chair of Board of Trustees)
- Andrew Pearman (Vice Chair and Chair of IT Committee)
- Siobhan Riordan (Resigned on 30[th] April 2022)
- Michael (Mick) Taylor (Resigned on 29[th] March 2022)
- Dr Rosetta Plummer (Resigned on 29[th] March 2022)
## **Company Secretary:**
Paul Booth
## **Key Management Personnel:**
The Senior Management Team during the year consisted of:
- Paul Booth (Interim Co-CEO from 1[st] January 2022 and Director of Finance and Operations)
- Eileen Kinsman (Interim Co-CEO from 1[st] January 2022 and Head of Development)
- Peter Tyldesley (Chief Executive Officer to 31[st] December 2021)
- John Challen (Head of Eco Centre)
- Ed Parsons (Head of Visitor Services)
- Dr Adrian Watson (Head of School)
- Andrew Menzies
- Roger Thomas (Chair of Organisational Development Committee)
- Anthony (Tony) Gross
- Kalyani Gandhi-Rhodes
- Sonya Bedford
- Theresa Löber
- Kevin Gould (Chair of Audit Finance and Performance Committee)
- Sarah Jenkinson (Head of Policy & Communications to 3[rd] July 2021)
**Principal Bankers** : Triodos Bank, Deanery Road, Bristol, BS1 5AS
**Auditor** : Sayer Vincent LLP, Invicta House, 108114 Golden Lane, London, EC1Y 0TL
## : **Registered Office and Operational Address**
Llwyngwern Quarry, Pantperthog, Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 9AZ
- Rhiannon Turner (Appointed 9[th] February 2022)
5
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Our Purposes and Activities**
## **Constitution**
The Charity is a charitable company limited by guarantee. It was incorporated on 5th January 1973 and changed its name to Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Limited on 28th June 1990. It is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 5th January 1973, as amended by resolutions on 21st May 1990, 8th September 2003, 4th December 2008, 13th September 2010 and 4th February 2021.
## **Objects and Public Benefit**
In accordance with s.17(5) of the Charities Act 2011, the trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning future activities. The Charity’s objects have been agreed with the Charity Commission and reflect the Commission’s public benefit requirements for charities.
The objects under the Memorandum and Articles of Association are for public benefit, as set out below:
- To promote for the benefit of the public the conservation, protection and improvement of the environment by various exclusively charitable means including, but not limited to, the promotion of sustainable development, the conservation of natural resources, the reduction of carbon emissions, the promotion of re-cycling, energy efficiency and the reduction of harmful pollution and any other exclusively charitable means of protecting and conserving the environment.
- To advance the education of the public in subjects related to sustainable development and the protection, enhancement and rehabilitation of the environment, the use of natural resources and sustainable energy and to promote study and research in such subjects, provided that the useful results of such study are disseminated to the public at large.
Sustainable development means ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.
## **Vision**
Our vision is a sustainable future for all humanity as part of a thriving natural world.
## **Mission**
The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) exists to inspire, inform and enable humanity to respond to the climate and biodiversity emergency.
## **Activities**
The Charity achieves its objectives through a wide range of activities, including:
- Operating a visitor centre open to the general public to showcase environmental solutions.
- Providing educational opportunities at its visitor centre.
- Providing postgraduate courses.
- Supporting local authorities, communities and other organisations through the Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab.
- Providing education for groups from schools, colleges and universities.
- Providing short courses for adults.
- Hosting lectures, conferences and events.
- Publishing information and advice.
- Publishing a magazine for members.
- Providing a free information service for the public to respond to enquiries on environmental matters.
6
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Achievements and Performance**
In 2021-22, we scaled up our work to reach new audiences and share the sustainable solutions that can help address the climate and biodiversity emergency.
## _**Making plans to transform our eco centre, to inspire, inform and enable more people**_
This year saw us laying the groundwork for a major redevelopment of the CAT eco centre. We began creating detailed plans for a new visitor experience to bring practical solutions to life, a sustainable skills hub to equip the workforce of the future, and expanded digital outreach to open the doors of CAT to even more people all over the world.
## _**Welcoming visitors and learners back to CAT**_
As COVID restrictions began to ease, we welcomed visitors and learners back to the CAT site. A new team of engagement rangers helped bring environmental solutions to life with a range of family activities and experience days, while school, college and university groups joined us at CAT for our unique immersive learning experience.
## _**Supporting councils, communities and organisations through our Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab**_
We launched a free online resource hub to help organisations take action on the climate and biodiversity emergency, and offered our first courses in Carbon Literacy for local authorities. Our Innovation Lab team supported a range of councils and community groups to explore barriers to taking action, and to work together on co-creating solutions.
## _**Welcoming more students than ever to our Graduate School of the Environment**_
More than 250 new students joined our postgraduate courses in September 2021 to gain an in-depth understanding of environmental issues and potential solutions. We refreshed our range of courses to help more people take action towards a safer, healthier, fairer future for all.
## _**Helping to fill the sustainable skills gap**_
A new Retrofit Masterclass was developed to build knowledge and expertise within the building industry. We secured funding for a new partnership project providing sustainable skills training, supporting green jobs, and increasing understanding and knowledge of environmental solutions. And throughout 2021, we ran a wide range of in-person and online events and courses to help people build their sustainability skills.
## _**Taking part in the COP26 climate negotiations**_
We joined the UN climate talks in Glasgow in November 2021 as official Observers, sharing knowledge and research with participants from around the world and making new connections and partnerships to increase our impact.
## _**All thanks to our supporters**_
All this was possible because of the incredible generosity of our members and supporters. As the challenges of the pandemic continued and the cost-of-living crisis began to impact, you continued to support us generously. Thank you.
7
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Zero Carbon Britain**
CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab has recently completed its second year, and is now in its last year funded by the Moondance Foundation.
This three-year project builds on CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain research to date, supporting councils, communities and other organisations to take action on the climate and biodiversity emergency. It does this through three main types of activity: development and maintenance of an online resource hub; provision of training and events; and designing and delivering multi-stakeholder innovation lab workshops to overcome barriers to transitioning to net zero.
The second year of the project saw a significant increase in activity, having spent much of the first year producing the strategy and developing the three strands of delivery. As a result of this increase in activity and ongoing demand for our services, we have been able to expand the team, adding additional research, training and administrative support.
## _**Online Resource Hub**_
The online resource hub collates hundreds of diverse resources, from webinars to research reports, case study examples to template documents and networks to join. CAT’s own webinars, short courses and MSc programmes are also listed to promote participation.
Final testing was carried out at the close of the financial year 2020-21, and the Hub was launched early the following financial year. We are currently reviewing the resource hub, to assess how to maximise its reach and impact.
## **Training**
Our Zero Carbon Britain training programmes continued to develop at pace over the year. We continued to offer our two-day Zero Carbon Britain training, offering four programmes this year, bringing the total offered so far to 10. We further developed this looking at themed training, offering our first Zero Carbon Britain Local Energy Solutions
one-day training course online in May. We were then commissioned to deliver this as a bespoke training later in the year, for the NW Regional Energy Hub in Lancashire.
Participation in our two-day Zero Carbon Britain training course often leads on to further bespoke bookings; examples include the British Retail Consortium, Church of England and Local Government Association (LGA). We have widened access to this programme, offering 32 bursaries to enable attendance. We have also been successful in encouraging ‘block bookings’ from groups such as Science for Climate Action Network (SCAN) and Skills & Volunteering Cymru (SVC) for our ZCB twoday training as part of a training package which has enabled us to offer further training within our team capacity.
We collaborated with the Carbon Literacy Project and developed our own carbon literacy training for local authorities with Zero Carbon Britain content included in the training materials. This training was accredited by the Carbon Literacy Project, and we delivered two public courses this year. In addition, we were commissioned to deliver this training with bespoke content for 40 members of staff at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. We are experiencing strong interest in these bespoke courses and have secured bookings into the next financial year.
We secured a contract through competitive tender (by invitation) to deliver training on behalf of the LGA. Initially we were commissioned to deliver two two-day programmes as part of their Leadership Essentials: Climate Emergency programme. We developed a bespoke training package for them, accredited by the Carbon Literacy Project and including additional content from our Zero Carbon Britain research and input from external speakers. This was very well received, and we secured an extension of this contract to deliver a further four two-day programmes before the end of March 2022. We were also invited to join the LGA Corporate Peer Challenge at Rossendale Borough Council, with a member of the team being trained
8
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
as a corporate peer and leading the climate line of enquiry on the Council’s review, an in-person event at their offices.
We have now reached over 100 councils through our training offer. Our two-day Zero Carbon Britain training is now at 740 participants over 10 events. The team has trained 212 participants on the carbon literacy training and an additional 759 people this year through bespoke Zero Carbon Britain training events of shorter duration. We continued to offer a series of webinars in partnership with Ashden, now having attracted a total of 2,349 participants so far over the two years.
## **Innovation Lab**
During this second year of operation the innovation lab has been busy, and by the end of the year had already surpassed original targets for the lab.
Key activities include:
## _The Staffordshire Councils lab_
This has been completed, having run three fullday workshops with 32 representatives from 10 councils, two sessions with 10 CEOs and meetings with Councillors. A full report was produced and shared with all participants, with a public-facing report published in the following financial year.
## _Shropshire Climate Action Partnership (SCAP) Enterprise Lab_
Between June and September 2021 we ran an innovation lab to explore how SCAP’s enterprise working group could better engage businesses in SCAP’s climate action plan. We worked with enterprise group members and representatives of 14 businesses from across Shropshire. We also worked alongside the CAT Graduate School, providing the lab as a focus for their Action Research module, through which six CAT students assisted with the lab. A full report has been produced and shared with SCAP.
## _Hawkwood Climate Action Lab_
As part of Hawkwood’s fourth climate action lab, we delivered a mini innovation lab to assist 38 participants with their climate action plans. The lab enabled participants to consider not only the immediate actions they can take, but also the ways in which they can
influence others to take action. A report presenting the findings was shared with Hawkwood.
## _Land Use Lab_
Whilst it has been decided to postpone our Land Use Lab, there has been significant action throughout year two in developing this lab, and in November 2021 we delivered a mini lab at the Wales Real Food and Farming Conference. Thirty-three participants worked together to explore the barriers in the current system impacting on the land use sector getting to net zero, and potential interventions and solutions to overcome these barriers. In addition to this, multiple positive relationships have been developed with organisations working across the sector.
## _NERC Discipline Hopping_
Between January and March 2022 we collaborated with Aberystwyth University on a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded project that saw five poets immersed in life at CAT in order to inform their poetry writing. The poets received Zero Carbon Britain training, had multiple themed tours of the CAT site and a practical workshop, attended several lectures, took part in a facilitated deep dive to develop their ideas, and were given access to Graduate School lecturers and other relevant staff to further develop their work. In early April they presented their poetry to students and staff and were very well received.
## _Supporting CAT’s wider work_
Outside these three main areas of activity, extensive engagement has been ongoing with many councils, organisations, university groups and community groups requesting presentations or other forms of input from the Zero Carbon Britain team. This includes:
- Behaviour Change Panel as part of Wales Climate Week / COP Cymru
- Aberystwyth University Creative Exchange Group
- Blueprint coalition
- Climate Cymru
- Advisory Board for Northern Ireland’s Energy Strategy Board
9
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
- Machynlleth climate action steering group and local energy event
- Barrow & Hereford Citizen’s Assemblies
- UCL Bartlett
- Birmingham Architectural Students
- Llaisygoedwig conference at CAT
- ZCB for University of West England (UWE)
- Educational visits – ZCB presentations and workshops University College London (UCL) (4 separate groups), Packwood House, Coventry Uni, Worcester Uni, Harper Adams
- Developed and delivered workshop for the BERA Education of Environmental Sustainability
- Co-authored a research paper on education for environmental sustainability, now published in BERA Research Intelligence
- Developed and delivered educational workshops with local Machynlleth school, Bro Hyddgen, to meet the requirements of the new curriculum for Wales
- Filmed interviews for media eg ITV news
- Presentation on wider education work for ZC Dorset
- WEEN conference
- Bangor University ZCB workshop
- Nottingham University ZCB workshop
- Delivery of online schools’ workshops for South Yorkshire Climate Conference and Our Space, Our Future.
- Collective.Cymru at CAT
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Training Zero Carbon Britain Hub
Training
feedback and Innovation Lab
Collaborators
Policy
analysis
CAT
Advocacy
Training
Policy &
Comms
Zero Carbon
Britain Hub
& Innovation
Lab
Online Innovation
Hub Lab
Online Hub
Lab
feedback
feedback
Online Hub
Labs
updates/
evolution
**----- End of picture text -----**
10
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **COP26**
In November 2021, a team from CAT attended the COP26 UN climate talks in Glasgow as official observers. As well as attending talks and building networks, contributions to the event included:
- Participating on a Welsh Government panel discussion on distributed leadership, alongside First Minister Mark Drakeford, Lord Deben and Poppy Stowell-Evans.
- Presenting Zero Carbon Britain at an official COP26 side-event in collaboration with the International Network for Sustainable Energy (INFORSE).
- Sharing updates and campaigns with CAT followers, members and supporters, including webinars and blogs.
- Taking part in the Design Council’s Design for the Planet two-day event.
- Presenting ZCB at official COP26 side-event in collaboration with the International Network for Sustainable Energy (INFORSE).
- Presenting ZCB at ZC community event for Denbighshire County Council.
- Attending the launch event for the British Educational Research Association (BERA) “Education for Environmental Sustainability group” manifesto.
11
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Graduate School of the Environment (GSE)**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
£ 1,600,000
£ 1,400,000
£ 1,200,000
£ 1,000,000
£ 800,000
£ 600,000
£400,000
£ 200,000
£ 0
2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2020/21
**----- End of picture text -----**
## _Annual Graduate School Income_
Despite the continued external COVID environment, 2021-22 saw CAT’s Graduate School maintaining the recent growth in student recruitment and achieving our key objective to maintain and grow student numbers to record levels. Whilst there were early concerns that COVID, and potentially Brexit, would adversely affect recruitment, our suite of MSc courses in Sustainability and Adaptation continued
its growth from an intake of 173 in 2019, to 236 in September 2021, although the upper limit is now largely restricted by programme quality priorities, staffing availability and physical resources, notably accommodation at the CAT site.
The MSc student intake in 2021 was 55:45 part time / full time, with a slight shift toward full time compared to the previous year. The high number of part time
**----- Start of picture text -----**
300 263
255
250
205
200
153
134
150
103
100
69
67
50
24
0
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Prof Dip/MArch Sustainability and Adaptation
Sustainability and Adaptation in the Built Environment Sustainability and Adaptation Planning
Sustainability in Energy Provision and Demand Management Green Building
Sustainable Food and Natural Resources Sustainablility and Behavour Change
Sustainability and Ecology
**----- End of picture text -----**
_Annual Graduate School programme intake (Every September)_
12
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
students reflects the flexibility of our programmes, which supports part time participation, and many full-time students converted to part time during the year as the COVID pandemic continued. The high number of part time students means that MSc students typically take an average of around three years to complete their course, which means that this growth in student intake will continue to be reflected financially over several years.
MArch student recruitment increased slightly to 22 new students, and the overall cohort grew to 44. Despite this being one of the overall larger MArch cohorts, recruitment to the programme remains a challenge compared with MSc programmes. The part time MArch route still has not attracted many students, primarily due to student finance rules which offer reduced funding for part time MArch students, but it still provides an alternative route for students who would otherwise withdraw from the course due to external factors. 2021 saw recruitment of a new course leader following retirement of the previous incumbent, and external feedback to the MArch course remains positive, with external examiners continuing to praise the Sustainable Architecture provision offered at CAT.
We had a long waiting list of 114 students for the MSc programmes, which we couldn’t accommodate. It is likely that many of these prospective students were attracted to CAT by its expertise in distance learning during the pandemic. These students were all on waiting lists for one of four programmes: Sustainability and Ecology, Sustainability and
Behaviour Change, Sustainable Food and Natural Resources and Green Building.
Recruitment was balanced across the programmes offered by the two validating universities. The five courses validated by the University of East London saw 120 students enrolling, with 116 joining the three courses validated by Liverpool John Moores University. This reversed a trend of the last few years, which made it easier to balance staff resources across the programmes and provided more of a balance to the students on the programmes and the reliance of recruiting to the new courses validated since 2019. This balance of courses is most in line with CAT’s externally perceived strengths in sustainability, design and renewable energy.
Thirty-five overseas students were recruited, making up 15% of the student intake – a similar proportion to previous years. A planned application for an overseas student visa sponsorship had to be put on hold again due to the pandemic.
The increase in student intake means that the Graduate School is now at the limits of capacity in its block delivery model. This is most evident where multiple modules are being delivered concurrently. Whilst still maintaining our current quality of student support and provision, the ability of Graduate School staff to support other CAT initiatives is now constrained through additional workload to deliver the degree programmes. Onsite accommodation is also a limiting factor during some teaching periods.
13
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
The COVID pandemic across the 2021/22 academic year presented continued operational challenges to course delivery, which the Graduate School responded to well. The academic team built upon the expertise they developed in 2020-21 and continued to provide a high-quality distance learning student experience. Student feedback continued to approve the approach to course delivery in these extreme circumstances, but understandably many of the students remain keen to return to teaching on the CAT site as soon as possible.
As our student profile is mature (average age 36) in comparison to most HE providers, attendance continued to suffer as they struggled with the direct and indirect impacts of COVID (such as family and work commitments). However, with the support of our external university partners and the academic and support staff, mechanisms were put in place to support their continuing study with as little impact as possible whilst maintaining academic standards. To further support the students with the additional difficulties they faced, the Graduate School introduced additional external pastoral support resources in 2021 which will be maintained throughout 2022-23. Its success and cost effectiveness mean that the Graduate School is likely to continue to employ this external provider in future years.
Overall, adopting operational course delivery changes and enhanced student support meant that the number of studied modules remained in line with our projections at the start of the year, and the Graduate School continued to have a real impact in delivering sustainability skills and knowledge. The continued uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis means that there will likely remain significant challenges for the Graduate School to meet throughout 202223, although the planned return to teaching on site in March 2022 is a positive sign.
During 2021-22 there were two major external audits and reviews of Graduate School provision. The first review in February 2022 was the fiveyearly partnership review and revalidation of CAT’s collaborative programmes with the University of East London, and the second review was the fouryearly Gateway Quality Review (Wales) with the Quality Assurance Agency on behalf of HEFCW the Welsh HE regulatory authority. These two major activities focussed the Graduate School’s attention on academic quality and process. Successful outcomes to these reviews provide strong foundations for the development of the Graduate School into the future.
The University of East London review in February 2022 was an opportunity to review and reset the working relationship with UEL. We also
14
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
took the opportunity to consolidate the range of programmes that CAT offers in order to improve focus and efficiency of delivery and refresh the curriculum to address changes in sustainability topics and staff expertise. As part of the reviewed curriculum, we added more support for the final dissertation to support more students completing the whole programme rather than withdrawing before the research element of the degree. At the event the MArch Sustainable Architecture and MSc courses in Sustainability and Adaptation, Green Building and Sustainability in Energy Provision and Demand Management were validated for five years. The Sustainability and Adaptation Planning and Sustainability and Adaptation in the Built Environment courses were withdrawn at the review, with relevant course materials incorporated into the curricula of the remaining courses. Existing students on the withdrawn courses will retain the opportunity to complete their programmes over the next three years.
An MRes Sustainability and Adaptation programme was also validated by the University of East London. This route is particularly suited for any student keen on pursuing a research-based environmental career. Several CAT alumni have furthered their research aspirations by taking PhDs at other institutions, and many have asked if CAT is able to consider as a possible route. The
introduction of the MRes is seen as a precursor to eventually developing a full research offer at CAT.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) conducted a Gateway Quality Review (Wales) of CAT in March 2022. The main purpose of the review was to investigate the higher education provision and to make judgments as to whether academic standards and quality meet UK expectations. The QAA is an independent charity whose main work is to review Higher Education, against the expectations of the UK Quality Code and provide advice and guidance for governments, regulatory agencies and higher education institutions globally to benefit UK higher education and its international reputation.
Initial draft feedback of the review was an expression of confidence that ‘academic standards are reliable, meet UK requirements, and are reasonably comparable’ - the highest judgement available through the review process. The outcomes are available at:
https://www.qaa.ac.uk /reviewing-highereducation/quality-assurance-reports/Centre-forAlternative-Technology
This is an extremely positive outcome and provides confidence that CAT qualifications are comparable to those available from UK universities.
15
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **CAT Eco Centre & Engagement**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
£ 1,600,000
£ 1,400,000
£ 1,200,000
£ 1,000,000
£ 800,000
£ 600,000
£400,000
£ 200,000
£ 0
2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2020/21
**----- End of picture text -----**
_Annual Vistitor Centre Income_
The course of the year saw the CAT site operation slowly emerge from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also provided opportunities to experiment with new ideas to engage visiting public and learners with CAT’s work and to consolidate front of house operations.
## **New beginnings**
Central to the CAT site experience is the opportunity to engage with staff who have practical knowledge of the sustainable systems demonstrated and an enthusiasm to share that knowledge across varied audiences. In order to provide this opportunity consistently across the year, a new site team was devised and recruited for the 2021 season: the engagement rangers. Their role is to deliver site engagement including daily site tours, activities for visiting groups and practical short courses. The team were recruited to cover four key themes: renewable energy, biodiversity, sustainable gardening and building. The team’s knowledge, flexibility and enthusiasm have had a big impact on CAT’s engagement offer and they also support the upkeep of the site, working alongside our estates team.
## **Visitors and learners at CAT**
A feature of the pandemic was the necessity to carefully manage the social distancing of
visitors and to capture contact details for track and trace, which involved the operation of a prebooking system. Another impact of the COVID-19 restrictions was the much-reduced accommodation capacity on site due to the continued need to restrict site accommodation to single occupancy in the first part of the year. This was compounded by the need to spread Graduate School onsite teaching over more weeks a month to allow students to socially distance; this restricted the ability to accommodate large overnight groups, although this had much less effect on the short course programme.
Overall, the effect of these factors combined with general uncertainty around tourism meant that the total number of day visitors and visiting learners of all types was just over 40% of pre-pandemic totals. Throughout the year, the site team showed great resourcefulness to ensure site users had the best experience possible.
As the year progressed, we saw the steady return of university group visits. They were especially keen to give their students the chance to experience the practical sustainable solutions exhibited at CAT, bought to life through the range of practical activities, tours and lectures used to build bespoke programmes.
We took the opportunity to convert two of our
16
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
popular short courses, Eco-refurbishment and Compost Toilets to a digital format; this was very successful, and we will continue to develop this option. We also trialled this format for a university visit and delivered online sessions for primary and secondary schools as part of schools’ conferences and events.
Meeting the demands of the sustainable skills agenda forms a key element in CAT’s development plans, including expanding the range of accredited training on offer. In January 2022 a Sustainable Skills Manager was recruited to support this development, with an initial focus on sustainable woodland management and building retrofit. A key element of this was the development of a pilot programme retrofit masterclass, funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund.
## **Site developments**
Ahead of any major site development, every opportunity was taken to add to the existing site for visitors and learners. Over the summer of 2021 a new air source heat pump working display was added. This allowed the site rangers to more
easily talk about this very important technology on their site tours and it also supported the delivery of ‘Renewables for Householders’ short courses and modules delivered by the Graduate School. Elsewhere new composting displays fulfilled the same role in the gardens and a new garden activity area provide a covered base for family garden activities and a new short course on gardening for wildlife.
The interior of the former shop building was refurbished to create a beautiful temporary exhibition space, including display tables and benches made from low impact materials, designed and built by our Masters in Sustainable Architecture students during their annual build week. The space was used to showcase the students’ Final Design Projects in a public exhibition highlighting the importance of sustainable architecture in addressing the climate and biodiversity emergency.
The refurbishment work was completed by CAT’s own estates team and has been used to feed into feasibility work around the future evolution of the site’s energy, water, and ecological systems.
17
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Visitor Services**
**£ 700,000**
**£ 600,000**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
£ 600,000
£ 500,000
£ 400,000
£ 300,000
£ 200,000
£ 100,000
£ 0
2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22
**----- End of picture text -----**
_Annual Retail Income (Eco-store, Mail Order, Café and Bar)_
We started this financial year with continued COVID-19 restrictions and reopened in May 2021 operating with similar procedures and controls as the previous year. We continued to operate our accommodation with much reduced capacity, maintaining single occupancy for students and short course participants.
We have increased cleaning and caretaking rotas with twice the number of changeovers between cohorts of students (teaching weeks were split midweek). We also experienced constant challenges with staff and residential guests testing positive for
Covid, resulting in many aborted visits and groups leaving site early.
Our control measures did seem to reduce the risk of large-scale transmission of the virus, reported infections were isolated to small numbers within groups.
Recruitment of chefs and caretakers has proven difficult, in common with many other businesses.
We implemented a new EPoS system in July 2021, this has ensured we have much more accurate data for ticket, catering, and retail sales. Further
**----- Start of picture text -----**
£ 350,000
£ 300,000
£ 250,000
£ 200,000
£ 150,000
£ 100,000
£ 50,000
£ 0
2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22
**----- End of picture text -----**
_Annual Accommodation Income_
18
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
development of the system is continuing to make full use of the functionality available.
Combining our retail and catering offer has worked well given number of visitors on site. Online Christmas sales proved to be comparable to previous years. In November 2021 Powys Trading Standards reviewed our processes for ensuring allergies are catered for safely. We were able to
demonstrate the effectiveness of our systems and procedures to the officer who visited.
Our Estates team have made improvements to the fabric of the building, and we have implemented Food Standards Agency Safer Food, Better Business, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system.
19
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Fundraising and Membership**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
£ 2,000,000
£ 1,800,000
£ 1,600,000
£ 1,400,000
£ 1,200,000
£ 1,000,000
£ 800,000
£ 600,000
£ 400,000
£ 200,000
£ 0
2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22
**----- End of picture text -----**
**Income from legacies Income from grants Income from donations**
_Annual Fundraising Income (2019/20 includes £1 million donation from Moondance)_
Throughout the 2021-22 financial year, whilst people and organisations everywhere struggled with the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their lives and livelihoods, CAT’s supporters continued to show great loyalty and generosity.
There were a number of changes to the Fundraising and Membership team during the year, including a Trusts and Statutory Funding Consultant (now Interim Head of Strategic Funding and Programmes), a replacement High Value and Legacies Manager, a replacement Fundraising Officer and a new post created for a second Fundraising Officer. With additional capacity, the team are able to focus more on diversifying and increasing our income, for example from trusts and small businesses as well as through inspiring new individual supporters to donate for the first time. Our supporters
CAT is reliant on the generosity of our individual supporters and a small but committed number of charitable trusts to make change happen. We are extremely grateful for your continuing support in tackling the climate and biodiversity emergencies and creating transformational change.
We raised £147,000 from quarterly email and postal appeals through the year, and a further £78,000 from donations in response to Clean Slate magazine.
In 2021-22 there were 5,305 paying members, including 653 life members. Overall membership numbers decreased slightly through the year, from 8,824 to 7,387, mainly due to the suspension of webinars offering attendees free membership, which ran until the end of 2021. A total of 284 new paying members were recruited during the year and 409 new supporters donated for the first time. Around 250 of these new members and 160 of the new supporters had also received free membership. The Fundraising and Membership Team is working with the Zero Carbon Britain team to relaunch regular webinars in 2022-23, to share solutions and increase our reach.
## **Legacies and Major Gifts**
We’ve received over £350,000 in legacy gifts in 2021-22, including a major legacy gift which will amount to £275,000 once complete in 2022-23.
We have received high level gifts of £50,000
20
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
(towards our bursary schemes), £40,000 (in memoriam), £100,000 (as a sale of property by one major donor), £32,000 by a matched giving platform, as well as generous uplifts on the size of annual gifts from some donors. We also received a major gift of £500,000 towards staff positions and capital funding in Summer 2022.
## **Trusts**
CAT was fortunate to receive support from a number of charitable trusts during the year including: £49,000 from the HCD Memorial Fund, and £25,000 from the Marmot Charitable Trust, towards our Zero Carbon Britain work; £5,000 from the Ethel & Gwynne Morgan Trust for a student bursary; £5,000 from the 1970 Trust; £5,000 from the Orr Mackintosh Foundation; and £5,000 from the Cobb Charitable Trust.
## **Statutory Funding**
Following submission of a funding application to the UK Government’s Community Renewal Fund (CRF) (administered by Powys County Council), CAT secured £513,688 in late November 2021. The funding award date was retrospectively applied allowing work from 4 November to be eligible. This enabled work to commence on the Business Case for CAT’s redevelopment plans being developed for the Mid Wales Growth Deal. The CRF comprises three key components, with all deliverables and grant expenditure due by 31 December 2022. This was a six-month extension to original 30 June 2022 end date. A £40,000 match from CAT’s funds is expected.
As per agreement, 50% of the grant funds (£256,844) were released at project commencement. The project is making good progress, with all grant funds likely to be utilised prior to project end date.
## **Pipeline statutory income for year ahead**
In addition to the balance of the CRF grant of £256,844 to be received in the next financial year, CAT will be aiming to secure additional statutory funding from a number of sources to support the redevelopment project as the required match investment, as well other CAT funding priorities. Some funding feasibility was conducted to support this work, and funders and pipeline amounts have been identified. Additionally, a proposed
approach to management of statutory funding pipeline of opportunities has been developed to enable trustees and Senior Management to understand opportunities and secure support prior to application and any grant/contract signature.
## **Fundraising good practice**
We are committed to upholding the highest standards in our fundraising, treating supporters and the public with fairness and respect. CAT is registered with the Fundraising Regulator and adheres to the Code of Fundraising Practice. We monitor all our fundraising activity closely to ensure value, compliance, and integrity in all our activities. We do not currently employ any third-party professional fundraising services to conduct public fundraising for us.
We have continued work to improve our organisation-wide systems and processes, including upgrading our database software, and improving the ways we collect, store and use data. We have also worked to understand our supporters better, conducting a survey and analysing the results to ensure we are communicating with everyone in the most appropriate and effective ways.
## **General Data Protection Regulation**
We continue to ensure we are going above and beyond the requirements of data protection laws, and this year recruited an additional member of staff to support us in this area.
## **Fundraising Complaints**
In the financial year 2021-22 we received four complaints. We log, investigate, and respond to all complaints and other feedback we receive and strive to use every opportunity we can to improve.
## **Protecting vulnerable people**
We recognise that everyone has a right to support their favourite causes and that we have an obligation to protect the vulnerable. We ensure we are careful and sensitive in dealing with vulnerable people, and our practices reflect this. In 2021-22 we developed new training about this and delivered it to members of the Fundraising and Membership Team.
21
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Financial Review**
In 2022 we saw a positive net movement on unrestricted funds of £115,948 (see page 35) compared to -£3,461 in 2021.
As government restrictions were gradually relaxed during 2021, we were able to re-open the visitor centre and therefore saw an increase in income from site-based activities such as day and residential visitors, group visits and short courses, which were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the previous year. Total income from these areas, including visitor centre income, income from group visits and short courses, and retail
& accommodation income, increased to £0.616 million compared to £0.184 million in 2021.
Income from our graduate school and fundraising activities also increased again in 2022. As a result of this along with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, total income for the year increased to £3.797 million compared to £2.874 million in 2021.
Other major factors that contributed towards the increase in income included a legacy gift of over £190,000 and a restricted grant from the UK Governments Community Renewal Fund (CRF) of over £250,000.
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Split of Total Income for 2021-22
Other
Venue & Accommodation
£111,581
£161,709
Catering & Retail
£255,560
Donations
£555,724
Visitor Centre
£109,828
Short Courses
£80,057
Grants
£340,844
Schools, Groups
& Uni Visits
£13,869 Legacies
£356,104
Graduate School
£1,497,702
Membership &
subscriptions
£314,180
**----- End of picture text -----**
22
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Split of Total Expenditure for 2021-22
Split of Total Expenditure for 2021-22
Other £12,466
Membership
£55,748
Projects Fundraising
Venue and
£482,576 £259,983
Accomodation
£268,287
Catering and Retail
£491,105
Graduate
School
£1,759,027
Visitor Centre £272,005
Short Courses £98,912
University Visits £21,910
Schools and group £25,404
**----- End of picture text -----**
Total fundraising and membership income, including the above, rose to £1.567 million compared to £1.116 million in 2021.
Due to the restricted CRF grant income, the level of unrestricted income as a percentage of total income fell in the year. Unrestricted income (excluding exceptional income) made up 89% of total income in 2022 compared to 97% in 2021.
Student numbers increased again in 2022 and as a result, Graduate School income rose to £1.498 million compared to £1.268 million in 2021.
Total operating expenditure rose to £3.851 million compared to £3.175 million in 2021, which was expected in line with the reopening of the visitor centre. Staff returned to work on site and the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention (‘Furlough’) Scheme came to an end in September
2021. This scheme covered just over £30,000 of our payroll costs in the year, compared to over £275,000 in the previous year. Therefore, net staff costs (after deducting grants received from the ‘furlough’ scheme) increased to £2.278 million, compared to £1.885 million in 2021 (see note 9). This is also partly due to recruiting additional staff and pay increases.
We continued to monitor cash flows and expenditure closely in the year. Although government restrictions and guidelines for public settings were relaxed, some restrictions were still in place during the year, which meant the cash inflows from some areas, such as group visits and the visitor centre, were not quite back to ‘pre-COVID’ levels. Many of our office-based staff continued to work remotely part-time after the requirement to work from home ended. Governance and support costs increased
23
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
to £1.29 million compared to £1.13 million in 2021 (see note 8), which is largely due to the site reopening along with general inflation rates. Capital expenditure remained low with only just under £3,000 being spent in the year (see note 10).
Restricted funds showed a net reduction of just under £170,000 in the year compared to almost £300,000 in 2021. As with the previous year, the reduction largely relates to expenditure of funding received for the ZCB Hub & Innovation Lab in 2020, however the overall movement of restricted funds was lower in 2022 than the previous year due to additional restricted income received, including the Community Renewal Fund Grant, and some new bursaries to assist students with CAT Graduate School course fees (see note 17).
Unrestricted funds increased to £1.23 million compared to £1.11 million in 2021, however the reduction in restricted funds meant that the net balance sheet total remained largely unchanged at £1.75 million compared to £1.8 million in 2021.
Cash balances at the year-end fell slightly to £0.91 million from £1.08 million in 2021.
## **Principal Funding Sources**
The principal funding sources for ongoing activities are Graduate School course fees, and grants, donations, and membership subscriptions to support CAT’s wider charitable work.
## **Investment Policy**
The trustees operate a policy of keeping available funds in interest-bearing bank accounts. These are usually instant access accounts but may also include fixed term deposits of up to one year where cash flows permit.
## Reserves Policy
The Board of Trustees reviewed its Reserves Policy in 2021 and introduced a new policy based around an assessment of internal and external risks, and operational and cash flow considerations. This replaces the previous policy of aiming for a level of reserves equivalent to three months’ operating costs.
Reserves are considered necessary to protect CAT’s activities by providing a financial provision which mitigates for the unpredictable external
environment and makes sufficient provision for future cash flow requirements. The policy also provides part of the framework for future strategic planning and decision-making. The development of an effective reserves policy will help to limit the impact of any risk upon the continuing operations of the charity.
When considering an appropriate level of reserves, the trustees will consider:
- the risk of unforeseen emergency or other unexpected need for funds
- covering unforeseen day-to-day operational costs, for example employing temporary staff to cover a long-term sick absence
- a fall in a source of income or the ending of a funding source
- planned future commitments, that cannot be met by future anticipated income alone, for example plans for a major capital investment project
- the need to fund potential deficits in a cash budget, for example money may need to be spent before a funding grant is received
- The financial risks identified determine the amount of reserves the charity targets to hold.
When deciding on the reserves amount the trustees will take into account the following:
- a minimum of one month’s salary bill.
- the policy of budgeting and forecasting to keep a minimum balance of unrestricted cash at all times.
- within the charity’s annual budget, a contingency amount of between 1% and 3% of income should be built into the overall budget which should be held as a contingency to support future requirements and any in year uncertainties.
- the need to create budget surpluses to plan for any future large project investment such as facilities development or building condition improvement.
24
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
- any uncertainty, turbulence or expected reduction in funding arrangements as a result of future planned changes or funding cuts.
Based on this policy, a target of £300,000 of free reserves has been set. At the year end, unrestricted reserves stood at £1,227,696 (2021: £1,111,748) but were mostly represented by fixed assets with the remainder in working capital. This translates into free reserves at the year-end of £83,450. While this is below target, it is positive compared to 2021 where we had negative free reserves of £34,225. Our plans continue to be focused on strengthening CAT’s overall financial position and building free reserves.
## **Going Concern**
The Charity uses integrated models for projecting and monitoring both long term forecasts and shortterm cash flow. These are used to ensure that the organisation always has enough funds to meet its liabilities as they fall due.
Cash flows and cash flow forecasts have been monitored and controlled closely and carefully by our Co-CEOs and senior management team, and periodically through the year at our Board, Organisational Development Committee (ODC) and Audit Finance and Performance Committee (AFPC) meetings. Between meetings, our senior team also hold regular meetings with the Chairs of those committees to discuss the latest financial position. Our current forecasts indicate that our cash position will strengthen further over the coming months through to March 2024.
Throughout the pandemic and subsequently as we have emerged from lockdown, the ongoing success of our Graduate School, coupled with the generosity of our members and donors, have meant that we have been able to maintain our cash flows and meet our liabilities as they have fallen due.
Sustainability and the environment continue to be central to Government policy at all levels. The demand for places at our Graduate School continues to grow and we are developing plans to expand capacity. Future fundraising income can never be certain, but we have a history of loyal supporters and growing numbers of enquiries from organisations wanting to support and partner with us. The success of our ZCB Hub And Innovation Lab in growing its training and consultancy work also bodes well for the future. This gives us confidence that we can continue to strengthen our activities and our financial position.
Overall, the range of opportunities to develop and extend our services, coupled with the rapidly growing demand for climate action, gives us confidence that we can strengthen our cash flows and build our reserves.
On this basis, the trustees are satisfied that CAT remains a going concern.
## **Pay Policy for Key Management Personnel**
The trustees consider that the Board of Trustees and the Senior Management Team comprise the key management personnel of the Charity, the former in charge of overall strategic direction and financial health, and the latter running and operating the Charity on a day-to-day basis.
All trustees give their time freely and no Trustee received remuneration in the year. Details of trustees’ expenses and related party transactions are disclosed in note 9 to the accounts.
The pay bands of the Chief Executive Officer and senior managers are set by the Board of Trustees and reviewed periodically, considering performance and available resources. Remuneration is set to ensure it is both fair and will attract and retain staff of the appropriate calibre and experience.
25
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Future Plans**
_Public consultation about the proposed Cynefin Project_
In 2021-22, we began making ambitious plans to reimagine and redevelop the eco centre, with a new immersive visitor experience that offers a microcosm of a future based on sustainable choices, embedded within high quality learning and practical training spaces.
For nearly 50 years, our site in Mid Wales has shown people a better future is possible and helped them take action to make it happen. Now it is time for the next stage in its history. Transforming the eco centre is essential if we are to inspire, inform and enable a bigger, more diverse audience to respond to the rapidly worsening climate and biodiversity emergency.
We will create new spaces for education in environmental solutions, a sustainable skills hub to deliver green skills for the future, and an immersive world-class visitor experience. Alongside this, we will develop our digital outreach to engage people around the globe.
In 2022-23, we will be laying the groundwork, with stakeholder engagement, feasibility studies, market assessments, business planning, and the creation of a new site plan and visitor experience plan.
The Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab is also going from strength to strength, working with local authorities, community groups and organisations to help them take action on the climate emergency. In 2022-23 the team will be working with a wide range of groups and organisations, including: the Local Government Association (LGA), providing training and innovation labs to support councils; the Church of England and the Church in Wales, with training aimed at helping them reach net zero; community organisations, such as Civic Square, and to inspire action at a local level; and arts organisation including Arts Council Wales to help the sector respond to the climate and biodiversity emergency.
The Graduate School of the Environment will continue to offer a high-quality unique learning experience in a range of subjects relating to sustainability, and the investment in new and improved teaching and accommodation facilities over the next few years will allow us to increase the number of places offered and expand our range of courses. In the short term, a new MRes postgraduate degree being launched in autumn 2022 will allow the Graduate School to offer research opportunities to students as a route into
26
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
research careers, contributing to the development of knowledge and innovation to support action on the climate and biodiversity emergency.
None of this would be possible without the generosity of our supporters, and we plan to continue to grow our fundraising income through a grant funding pipeline, which has been developed, capturing CAT’s current and new funders.
In the year ahead opportunities will be monitored and progressed with a focus next year on securing development and project funds to take the redevelopment project through design and business case planning to the next approval gateways. The aim is to secure the Mid-Wales Growth Deal
as soon as possible. Fundraising will support the whole breadth of CAT’s work including that of Zero Carbon Britain and education team, with greater focus on ensuring all project cost including core costs are built into project budgets.
We are dedicating more resources to fundraising from trusts and individuals who have the capacity for high value giving, as well as re-launching webinars and developing new campaigns to engage more people with CAT and inspire them to donate or join for the first time. We’re also planning to focus more on fundraising for gifts in Wills in the coming years.
_Children were invited to contribute their own vision of a future CAT, during the public consultation day_
27
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
_The WISE building, first floor deck_
CAT is a registered Charity and Limited Company. The Board of Trustees are directors for the purposes of company law and trustees for the purposes of charity law. Under the requirements of the Articles of Association, each year one-third of the Board members retire and may offer themselves for reelection. New trustees are appointed by special resolution of the Board.
During the year, the Board continued to look to increase its capacity and skill set. The Board is always keen to consider new applications, however, the current Board of Trustees and their range of skills and experience is considered broadly appropriate for the current needs of the charity.
The Board currently operates with three committees. These are now all permanent: Organisational Development Committee (ODC); Audit Finance and Performance Committee (AFPC). The third was originally set up as a ‘task and finish’ group:
IT Steering Committee (ITSC). The ITSC was made a permanent committee by the Board in December 2020 recognising the ongoing importance of IT development to the charity.
## **Management Structure**
The current Senior Management Team (‘SMT’ - see page 5) which has been built up over recent years is now considered to be the most appropriate structure to take the organisation forward.
## **Risk Assessment and Management**
Major risks are those that have a high probability of occurring and would, if they occurred, have a severe impact on either operational performance or achievement of our objectives, or could damage CAT’s reputation.
The risk management process is designed to enable the Board to conclude whether the major risks to which CAT is exposed have been identified and
28
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
reviewed, and that systems have been established to mitigate those risks.
The system involves the CEO and Senior Management Team:
1. Reviewing the main high impact, generic risks.
2. Establishing a comprehensive risk register.
3. Establishing a bottom-up and top-down process of risk identification, assessment, mitigation and monitoring.
4. Producing detailed reports to ODC on identified risks and mitigation strategy.
Major risks which the Charity may face have been identified and analysed. The formal risk register is kept under regular review by ODC. The register
includes all of the current identified risks, ranked in order of their combined likelihood of occurrence and potential impact on CAT.
Individual risk registers are also maintained as deemed necessary for certain areas of CAT’s activities including IT, and in some cases for individual projects.
The Board are currently engaged in a series of discussions to review their approach to risk and establish their risk ‘appetite’ going forward.
The table below is an extract from the current risk register and includes what are considered to be the four key risks faced by CAT.
The main risks currently identified are:
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Risk Mitigation
Cash flow & finance; organisation Co-CEOs, SMT and trustees regularly review forecasts and
viability; economic climate management information. Various scenarios are modelled. Plans are
updated as circumstances develop. AFPC keep finances under regular
review. Steps are being taken to maximise income and control costs
wherever possible.
Site infrastructure: The capital plan is kept under review and updated with a focus on
Need for repairs and refurbishment operationally critical work. The major capital fundraising campaign is
to older, bespoke-built areas progressing. Onsite maintenance staff are developing their skills and
sharing knowledge to boost in-house capacity and cover. Use of online
‘T100’ system for assessing, recording, and monitoring risks.
Financial; Growth: Ongoing courses and more pro-active promotion. Online virtual open
Fall in graduate school student days. Impact of students on H&S to be focus of ongoing planning.
numbers
Staffing levels: Regular SMT meetings focus on key areas and prioritise tasks. SMT
Retention and recruitment members disseminate plans to teams. Ongoing development of IT
infrastructure to improve efficiencies. Wide-ranging Pay & Progression
review by external consultants nearing completion.
**----- End of picture text -----**
29
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Trustees’ Responsibilities in Relation to the Financial Statements**
The trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. 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 Charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure of the Charity for the year. In preparing those financial statements the trustees are required to:
- Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently
- Observe the methods and principles in the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP)
- Make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent
- State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements
- Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Charity will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Charity’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of
the Charity 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 Charity’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of the financial statements and other information included in annual reports may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.
In so far as the trustees are aware at the time of approving our Trustees’ Annual Report:
- there is no relevant information, being information needed by the auditor in connection with preparing their report, of which the auditor is unaware;
- they have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.
Sayer Vincent LLP was appointed as the charitable company’s auditor during the year and has expressed its willingness to continue in that capacity.
The directors’ annual report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies’ regime.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees
Dr Sally Carr (Chair)
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Date
**----- End of picture text -----**
30
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Independent Auditor’s Report to the Members of The Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Limited on the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2022**
## **Opinion**
We have audited the financial statements of The Centre for Alternative Technology (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 March 2022 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:
- Give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2022 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure for the year then ended
- Have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice
- Have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006
## **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 The Centre for Alternative Technology’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 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
31
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
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:
- The information given in the trustees’ annual report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
- The trustees’ annual report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
## **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:
- Adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
- The financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
- Certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
- We have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
- The directors were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the trustees’ annual report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.
## **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 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
32
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:
We enquired of management, the Audit Committee and board of trustees, which included obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation, concerning the charity’s policies and procedures relating to:
- Identifying, evaluating, and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
- Detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud;
- The internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations.
- We inspected the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.
- We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the charity operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a material effect on the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the charity from our professional and sector experience.
- We communicated applicable laws and regulations throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of noncompliance throughout the audit.
- We reviewed any reports made to regulators.
- We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and tested these to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
- We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud.
- In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessed whether the
judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias and tested significant transactions that are unusual or those outside the normal course of business.
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.
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)
## 16 December 2022
for and on behalf of Sayer Vincent LLP, Statutory Auditor
Invicta House, 108-114 Golden Lane, LONDON, EC1Y 0TL
33
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Financial Statements**
## **Statement of Financial Activities**
**(including an Income and Expenditure Account) for the Year Ended 31 March 2022**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Notes Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total
Funds Funds Funds 2022 2021
£ £ £ £ £
Income from :
Donations and legacies:
Donations 466,124 89,600 - 555,724 696,504
Grants 3 5,000 335,844 - 340,844 35,000
- -
Legacies 356,104 356,104 172,563
Membership & Subscriptions 314,180 - - 314,180 211,576
1,141,408 425,444 - 1,566,852 1,115,643
Charitable activities:
Graduate School 1,497,702 - - 1,497,702 1,268,098
- -
Schools & Groups 8,789 8,789 (2,971)
University Visits 5,080 - - 5,080 180
Short Courses 80,057 - - 80,057 16,241
Eco Store & Mail Order 79,965 - - 79,965 59,060
Visitor Centre 109,828 - - 109,828 21,533
Café & Bar 175,595 - - 175,595 27,781
Venue & Accommodation 161,708 - - 161,708 62,778
- -
Projects 66,064 66,064 28,650
2,184,788 - - 2,184,788 1,481,350
Other income:
Miscellaneous Income 14,474 - - 14,474 534
Exceptional Income 4 31,043 - - 31,043 276,173
Total Income 3,371,713 425,444 - 3,797,157 2,873,700
**----- End of picture text -----**
34
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Statement of Financial Activities (continued)**
**(including an Income and Expenditure Account) for the Year Ended 31 March 2022**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Notes Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total
Funds Funds Funds 2022 2021
£ £ £ £ £
Expenditure on:
Raising funds: 6
- -
Fundraising 363,304 363,304 259,983
- -
Membership 55,748 55,748 104,099
419,052 - - 419,052 364,082
Charitable activities: 7
Graduate School 1,759,027 - - 1,759,027 1,522,269
- -
Schools & Groups 25,404 25,404 23,560
- -
University Visits 21,910 21,910 23,924
Short Courses 98,912 - - 98,912 63,829
Eco Store & Mail Order 143,021 - - 143,021 185,319
Visitor Centre 272,005 - - 272,005 162,418
Café & Bar 348,084 - - 348,084 234,702
Venue & Accommodation 268,287 - - 268,287 236,779
Projects - 482,576 - 482,576 348,056
Miscellaneous 12,466 - - 12,466 -
2,949,116 482,576 - 3,431,692 2,800,856
Other expenditure
- - - -
Loss on disposal of fixed assets 10,084
Total Expenditure: 3,368,168 482,576 - 3,850,744 3,175,022
Net (outgoing)/incoming resources -
3,545 (57,132) (53,587) (301,322)
before transfers
Net transfers between funds 112,403 (112,403) - - -
Net movement in Funds 115,948 (169,535) - (53,587) (301,322)
Total funds brought forward at 1 April 2021 1,111,748 675,831 19,407 1,806,986 2,108,308
Total funds carried forward
17 1,227,696 506,296 19,407 1,753,399 1,806,986
at 31 March 2022
**----- End of picture text -----**
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All the above amounts derive from continuing activities.
The notes on pages 38 to 55 form an integral part of these financial statements.
35
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2022**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
2022 2021
Notes £ £ £ £
Fixed Assets
Tangible Assets 10 2,765,494 2,828,015
Investments 11 100 100
2,765,594 2,828,115
Current Assets
Stocks 12 15,867 29,249
Debtors 13 731,134 251,209
Cash at bank 909,389 1,081,383
1,656,390 1,361,841
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 14 (1,110,772) (761,738)
Net Current Assets 545,618 600,103
Total Assets less Current Liabilities 3,311,212 3,428,218
Creditors: amounts falling due
after more than one year 15 (1,557,813) (1,621,232)
Net Assets 1,753,399 1,806,986
Funds of the Charity 17
Endowment funds 19,407 19,407
Restricted funds 506,296 675,831
Unrestricted funds 1,227,696 1,111,748
Total funds 1,753,399 1,806,986
**----- End of picture text -----**
These accounts are prepared in accordance with the special provisions of Part 15 of the Companies Act relating to small companies, and constitute the annual accounts required by the Companies Act 2006, and are for circulation to members of the company.
These accounts were approved by the Board of Trustees on:
and signed on their behalf by:
**Dr Sally Carr (Chair)**
Registered Charity Number: 265239 • Company Number: 1090006
36
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Statement of Cash Flows for the Year Ended 31st March 2022**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
2022 2021
Notes £ £
Cashflows from operating activities
Net income / (expenditure) for the year (53,587) (301,322)
Investment income receivable (3) (534)
Interest payable 60,833 57,394
Depreciation of tangible fixed assets 65,325 67,258
-
Loss on disposal of tangible fixed assets 10,084
(Increase)/Decrease in stocks 13,382 14,936
Decrease/(Increase) in debtors (479,925) 138,859
(Decrease)/Increase in creditors 346,408 (120,533)
Net cash provided by / (used in) operating activities (47,567) (133,858)
Cash flows from financing activities:
Repayments of borrowing (63,138) (17,464)
Cash inflows from borrowing 2,346 27,705
Net cash provided by / (used in) investing activities (60,792) 10,241
Cash flows from investing activities:
Investment income receivable 3 534
Interest payable (60,833) (57,394)
Proceeds of sale of fixed assets - 400
Capital expenditure (2,805) (5,431)
Net cash provided by / (used in) investing activities (63,635) (61,891)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year (171,994) (185,508)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year 1,081,383 1,266,891
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year 909,389 1,081,383
ANALYSIS OF CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS AND OF NET DEBT
At 1 April 2021 Cash flow At 31 March 2022
£ £ £
Net cash:
Cash at bank and in hand 1,081,383 (171,994) 909,389
Debt :
Loans due within one year (60,910) (2,346) (63,256)
Loans due in more than one year (1,621,232) 63,138 (1,558,094)
Total (600,759) (111,202) (711,961)
**----- End of picture text -----**
37
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **Notes to the Accounts**
## **1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES**
## **a. Statutory Information**
Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is incorporated in England & Wales.
The registered office address is Llwyngwern Quarry, Pantperthog, Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 9AZ.
## **b. Basis of preparation**
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their ac-counts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015) - Charities SORP (FRS 102), the Financial Re-porting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.
Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Limited meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or trans-action value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy notes.
The charity is exempt from the preparation of group accounts as the subsidiary is dormant.
The financial statements are prepared in Sterling, which is the functional currency of the en-tity.
The principal accounting policies are described below and are consistent with prior years.
## **c. Going Concern Basis**
The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis. The charity has devel-oped integrated models for projecting and monitoring both long term forecasts and short term cash flow. These are used to ensure that the organisation always has enough funds to meet its liabilities as they fall due. The charity also has the support of its bankers and a major donor.
Cash flows have been monitored very carefully
and closely throughout the COVID-19 pandem-ic and will continue to be done so at least until it has come to an end. This has ensured that all liabilities have been met as they have fallen due and the current expectations are that this will continue to be so. This careful control, coupled with the use of applicable Govern-ment mitigation schemes, mean that sufficient cash flows have been maintained and are ex-pected to continue to be maintained for the foreseeable future.
On this basis, the trustees consider that CAT is a going concern and it is appropriate to pre-pare the accounts as such.
## **d. Income**
Income from educational services and use of premises is accounted for in the period in which the service is provided. Income received in advance of the provision of the service is de-ferred until the criteria for recognition are met.
Other incoming resources, including grants for the purchase of fixed assets and members’ subscriptions, are accounted for in the period in which the charity is entitled to the income, the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy, and it is probable that the income will be received.
Income in relation to postgraduate courses has been recognised on an accruals basis.
Life memberships are accounted for on a receipts basis.
## **e. Donated services and facilities**
Donated services or facilities are recognised as income when the Charity has control over the item, any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of eco-nomic benefit from the use by the Charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. On receipt, donated services and facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the Charity which is the amount the Charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the
38
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.
## **f. Interest receivable**
Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be meas-ured reliably by the Charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the Bank.
## **g. Government grants**
Income from government 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 and is not deferred.
## **h. Expenditure**
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required, and the amount of the obli-gation can be measured reliably. All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been listed under headings that aggregate all the costs related to the activity. Direct costs are allocated on an actual basis to the key areas of activity. Overheads are apportioned between expenses heading on the basis of turnover. This includes VAT irrecoverable under partial exemption.
## **i. Pension costs**
Pension contributions are made by the Charity to two separate pension schemes depending on the category of employee. The assets and liabilities of these national schemes are not separately identifiable. Contributions are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities (SOFA) when accrued. CAT contributes to a group money purchase defined contribution pension scheme operated by Aviva. New and existing employees are automatically enrolled into the money purchase scheme unless they have exercised their right to opt out of scheme mem-bership.
Employees joining the money purchase pension scheme operated by Aviva contract directly with the insurance company. CAT makes a contribution
of 3% (2021: 3%) of salary to this pension scheme and acts as agent in collecting and paying over employee pension contribu-tions. The contributions made for the accounting period are treated as an expense. There were no contributions outstanding as at the balance sheet date.
Graduate School academic staff are members of The Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS). The TPS is a defined benefit scheme and assets are held separately from those of CAT. The TPS is an unfunded defined benefit scheme and contributions are calculated so as to spread the cost of pensions over employees’ working lives with the school in such a way that the pension cost is a substantially level percentage of current and future pensionable payroll. The contributions are determined by the Government Actuary on the basis of quinquennial valuations using a prospective benefit method. The TPS is a multi-employer scheme and the school is unable to identify its share of the underlying assets and liabilities of the scheme on a consistent and reasonable basis. The TPS is therefore treated as a defined contribution scheme and the con-tributions recognised as they are paid each year.
## **j. Leases**
Operating leases are accounted for on an accruals basis in the SOFA. The company has no fi-nance leases or HP contracts.
## **k. Tangible fixed assets and depreciation**
Individual tangible fixed assets costing £1,000 or more are capitalised and recorded at cost or, if donated, at valuation at the time of acquisition. Depreciation of tangible fixed assets is calculated to write off their cost or valuation less any residual value over their estimated use-ful lives as follows:
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Asset category Annual rate
Freehold land: Not depreciated
Freehold buildings: Over 10 to 50 years
Plant and machinery: Over 4 to 10 years
Fixtures, fittings
and equipment: Over 4 years
Computer equipment: Over 4 years
Motor vehicles: Over 4 years
**----- End of picture text -----**
39
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **l. Investments**
Investments in subsidiaries are measured at cost less impairment.
## **m. Stock**
Stocks are stated at the lower of cost and estimated selling price less costs to complete and sell. In general, cost is determined on a first in first out basis and includes transport and han-dling costs. Provision is made where necessary for obsolete, slow moving and defective stocks. Donated items of stock, held for distribution or resale, are recognised at fair value which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay for the items on the open market.
## **n. Debtors**
Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade dis-count offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.
## **o. 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 three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.
## **p. Creditors and provisions**
## **q. Financial Instruments**
CAT only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subse-quently measured at their settlement value.
## **r. Fund accounting**
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the charitable objects of the Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Limited.
Restricted funds are funds subject to specific restrictions imposed by donors or by the pur-pose of the appeal.
The endowment fund represents those assets which must be held permanently by the chari-ty. Income arising on the endowment fund is to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor.
## **s. Judgements and key accounting estimates**
The preparation of the financial statements requires management to make judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported. These are continually reviewed and are based on experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.
Creditors and provisions are recognised where there is a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.
40
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **2. STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES DETAILED COMPARATIVES**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total 2021
Funds Funds Funds
£ £ £ £
Income from:
Donations & Legacies:
Donations 661,621 34,573 310 696,504
Grants - 35,000 - 35,000
-
Legacies 167,563 5,000 172,563
- -
Membership & Subscriptions 211,576 211,576
1,040,760 74,573 310 1,115,643
Income from charitable activities:
Graduate School 1,268,098 - - 1,268,098
- -
Schools & Groups (2,971) (2,971)
University Visits 180 - - 180
Short Courses 16,241 - - 16,241
Eco Store & Mail Order 59,060 - - 59,060
Visitor Centre 21,533 - - 21,533
Café & Bar 27,781 - - 27,781
Venue & Accommodation 62,778 - - 62,778
- -
Projects 28,650 28,650
1,481,350 - - 1,481,350
Other Income:
Miscellaneous Income 375 159 534
Exceptional Income 276,173 276,173
Total Income 2,798,658 74,573 469 2,873,700
**----- End of picture text -----**
41
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **2. STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES**
## **DETAILED COMPARATIVES (CONTINUED)**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total 2021
Funds Funds Funds
£ £ £ £
Expenditure on:
Raising funds:
- -
Fundraising 259,983 259,983
- -
Membership 104,099 104,099
364,082 - - 364,082
Charitable Activities::
Graduate School 1,522,269 - - 1,522,269
- -
Schools & Groups 23,560 23,560
- -
University Visits 23,924 23,924
Short Courses 63,829 - - 63,829
Eco Store & Mail Order 185,319 - - 185,319
Visitor Centre 162,418 - - 162,418
Café & Bar 234,702 - - 234,702
Venue & Accommodation 236,779 - - 236,779
Projects - 348,051 5 348,056
2,452,800 348,051 5 2,800,856
Other expenditure:
- -
Loss on disposal of fixed assets 10,084 10,084
Total expenditure 2,826,966 348,051 5 3,175,022
Net income / (expenditure) (28,308) (273,478) 464 (301,322)
Transfers between funds 24,847 (24,847) - -
Net Movement in Funds (3,461) (298,325) 464 (301,322)
Total funds brought forward at 1 April 2020 1,115,209 974,156 18,943 2,108,308
Total funds carried forward at 31 March 2021 1,111,748 675,831 19,407 1,806,986
**----- End of picture text -----**
42
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **3. GRANTS**
**Grants receivable during the year comprise:**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Unrestricted Restricted 2022 Total Unrestricted Restricted 2021 Total
£ £ £ £ £ £
Grants for Zero Carbon Britain
Marmot Charitable Trust - 25,000 25,000 -
Jam Today - - - 15,000 15,000
The 1970 Trust 5,000 5,000 - - -
HCD Memorial Trust - 49,000 49,000 - - -
- - - -
Powys County Council (Community 256,844 256,844
Renewal Fund)
Grants for Education and Research
Cobb Charitable Trust - - - - 10,000 10,000
Ethel & Gwynne Morgan Trust - 5,000 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
Durham Wharf Foundation - - - - 5,000 5,000
Total grants received 5,000 335,844 340,844 - 35,000 35,000
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **4 EXCEPTIONAL INCOME**
Exceptional income of £31,043 (2021:£276,173) represents income receivable from the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention (‘Furlough’) Scheme in respect of furloughed staff.
## **5 NET INCOME AND EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR**
This is stated after charging:
**----- Start of picture text -----**
2022 2021
£ £
Auditor’s remuneration – external audit (excluding VAT) 16,500 15,000
Depreciation 65,325 67,258
-
Loss on disposal of fixed assets 10,084
Operating leases – land 550 550
-
Termination settlement payment 3,191
-
Redundancy payments 14,144
**----- End of picture text -----**
43
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **6. EXPENDITURE ON RAISING FUNDS**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Direct Employment Support costs 2022 Direct Employment Support costs 2021
costs costs (note 8) Total costs costs (note 8) Total
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £
Fundraising 116,741 133,123 113,440 363,304 42,926 121,945 95,112 259,983
- -
Memberships 28,716 27,032 55,748 53,713 50,386 104,099
145,457 133,123 140,472 419,052 96,639 121,945 145,498 364,082
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **7. EXPENDITURE ON CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Direct Employment Support costs 2022 Direct Employment Support costs 2021
costs costs (note 8) Total costs costs (note 8) Total
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £
Graduate School [323,013] 726,370 709,644 1,759,027 196,481 662,635 663,153 1,522,269
-
Schools & Groups 1,461 17,854 6,089 25,404 19,777 3,783 23,560
University Visits - 17,358 4,552 21,910 54 19,970 3,900 23,924
Short Courses 21,595 42,885 34,432 98,912 6,654 40,762 16,413 63,829
Eco Store 64,638 22,175 56,208 143,021 44,555 79,549 61,215 185,319
& Mail Order
Visitor Centre 8,331 95,942 167,732 272,005 1,985 39,931 120,502 162,418
Café & Bar 83,203 175,474 89,407 348,084 14,488 158,618 61,596 234,702
Venue & 27,538 163,341 77,408 268,287 19,331 158,594 58,854 236,779
Accommodation
- -
Expenditure on 6,500 5,966 12,466 121,829 226,227 348,056
other projects
536,279 1,261,399 1,151,438 2,949,116 405,377 1,406,063 989,416 2,800,856
**----- End of picture text -----**
44
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **8. ANALYSIS OF GOVERNANCE AND SUPPORT COSTS**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Employment Other costs 2022 Employment Employment 2021
costs costs costs
£ £ £ £ £ £
Administra-tion 177,498 307,363 484,861 195,875 207,313 403,188
Finance 69,872 47,655 117,527 78,993 40,066 119,059
Estates 191,708 117,691 309,399 175,421 90,997 266,418
Information Technology 64,894 40,485 105,379 63,872 30,976 94,848
Marketing 140,217 69,202 209,419 132,961 51,182 184,143
Depreciation - 65,325 65,325 - 67,258 67,258
644,189 647,721 1,291,910 647,122 487,792 1,134,914
**----- End of picture text -----**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Admin Finance Estates IT Market-ing Deprecia-tion Total
£ £ £ £ £ £ £
Graduate School 265,074 57,115 123,759 57,611 160,221 45,864 709,644
Schools & Groups 3,733 335 - 812 940 269 6,089
University Visits 3,006 194 - 653 543 156 4,552
Short Courses 16,728 3,052 - 3,636 8,564 2,452 34,432
Consultancy 2,812 552 - 611 1,548 443 5,966
Eco Store & Mail Order 9,212 3,050 30,940 2,002 8,555 2,449 56,208
Visitor Centre 20,267 4,188 123,760 4,405 11,749 3,363 167,732
Café & Bar 38,110 6,697 30,940 8,283 X 5,377 89,407
Venue & Accommodation 40,244 6,167 - 8,746 17,299 4,952 77,408
Fundraising 73,311 24,196 - 15,933 X X 113,440
Memberships 12,364 11,981 - 2,687 X X 27,032
Total allocated 2022 484,861 117,527 309,399 105,379 209,419 65,325 1,291,910
Graduate School 221,909 60,408 106,567 52,203 163,493 58,573 663,153
Schools & Groups 3,063 - - 720 - - 3,783
University Visits 3,125 9 - 735 23 8 3,900
Short Courses 10,352 775 - 2,435 2,099 752 16,413
Eco Store & Mail Order 17,314 2,820 26,642 4,073 7,632 2,734 61,215
Visitor Centre 7,389 1,028 106,567 1,738 2,783 997 120,502
Café & Bar 26,182 1,327 26,642 6,159 X 1,286 61,596
Venue & Accommodation 36,297 2,998 - 8,539 8,113 2,907 58,854
Fundraising 44,947 39,592 - 10,573 X X 95,112
Memberships 32,612 10,102 - 7,672 X X 50,386
Total allocated 2021 403,188 119,059 266,418 94,848 184,143 67,258 1,134,914
**----- End of picture text -----**
45
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **8. ANALYSIS OF GOVERNANCE AND SUPPORT COSTS (continued)**
## **Method of allocation:**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Administration: In proportion to total costs (excluding stock purchases).
Finance: In proportion to income.
Estates: Based on management’s assessment of actual usage (40% GSE & Visitor
Centre: 10% Eco Store & Café).
Information Technology: In proportion to total costs (excluding stock purchases).
Marketing: In proportion to income (excluding Café which doesn’t use marketing directly;
and, Fundraising & Membership that have costs allocated directly).
Depreciation: In proportion to income (for trading units only).
**----- End of picture text -----**
(X: Excluded from allocation)
## **9. TRUSTEES AND EMPLOYEES**
No remuneration was paid or waived by any trustee during the year (2021: £nil). Total expenses reimbursed to trustees were £682 (2021: £nil).
## Employee costs during the year were:
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Notes 2022 2021
£ £
Wages and salaries 1,975,761 1,858,926
Social Security 171,629 145,814
Pension (Defined Contribution Schemes) 1(i) 161,605 138,882
-
Termination settlement payment 3,191
-
Redundancy payments 14,144
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (31,043) (276,173)
2,277,952 1,884,784
**----- End of picture text -----**
46
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **9. TRUSTEES AND EMPLOYEES (CONTINUED)**
**The average number of employees during the year, calculated on a head count basis , was:**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
2022 2021
Number Number
Fundraising 4 4
Membership - 1
Charitable activities 95 86
99 91
**----- End of picture text -----**
**The number of employees whose emoluments excluding pension contributions fell within the following bands was:**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
2022 2021
Number Number
£60,000 - £70,000 3 3
**----- End of picture text -----**
‘The emoluments of key management staff were £373,129 (2021: £365,200), including Employer’s National Insurance and Pension Contributions. This increase mainly represents changes in the structure of the senior management team rather than changes in salaries.’
47
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **10. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Freehold Plant and Fixtures and Computer Motor Total
land and machinery Fittings Equipment Vehicles
Buildings
£ £ £ £ £ £
Cost:
At 1 April 2021 2,856,696 789,385 65,133 19,818 - 3,731,032
Additions - - - 2805 - 2805
- - - - - -
Disposals
At 31 March 2022 2,856,696 789,385 65,133 22,623 0 3,733,837
Depreciation:
At 1 April 2021 65,747 767,443 57,228 12,599 - 903,017
Charge for the year 45,635 10,974 4,565 4,151 - 65,325
- - - - - -
Disposals
At 31 March 2022 111,382 778,417 61,793 16,750 - 968,342
Net book value:
At 31 March 2022 2,745,314 10,968 3,340 5,873 - 2,765,495
At 31 March 2021 2,790,949 21,942 7,901 7,220 - 2,828,015
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **11. INVESTMENTS**
The Charity holds 100% of the share capital (100 £1 shares) and voting rights in its dormant subsidiary, C.A.T Alternative Technology Trading Ltd.
48
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **12. STOCK**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
2022 2021
£ £
Retail 4,280 18,486
Publications 5,769 7,296
Café & Bar 5,818 3,467
15,867 29,429
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **13. DEBTORS**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Amounts falling due within one year
Note 2022 2021
£ £
Trade debtors 448,879 154,708
Prepayments 50,254 63,732
Accrued income 227,705 30,094
VAT recoverable 3,895 2,675
Other 400 -
731,133 251,209
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **14. CREDITORS**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Amounts falling due within one year
Note 2022 2021
£ £
Trade creditors 486,150 179,061
Tax and social security 33,541 40,559
Loans 63,536 60,910
Other creditors 170,115 164,356
Accruals 146,103 182,022
Deferred income 211,327 134,830
1,110,772 761,738
**----- End of picture text -----**
Deferred income relates to income received in advance of activities to be held in future years.
49
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **14a. DEFERRED INCOME**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Note 2022 2021
£ £
Balance at the beginning of the year 134,830 154,110
Amount released to income in the year (1,484,597) (1,237,754)
Amount deferred in the year 1,561,094 1,218,474
211,327 134,830
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **15. CREDITORS**
|**15. CREDITORS**|**15. CREDITORS**|**15. CREDITORS**||
|---|---|---|---|
|**amounts falling due after more than oneyear**||||
||**2022**||**2021**|
||**£**||**£**|
|Loans|1,557,813||1,621,232|
## **16. LOANS**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Analysis of loan repayments.
2022 2021
£ £
Amounts falling due:
within one year 63,536 60,910
between two and five years 238,882 255,748
after five years 1,318,931 1,365,484
1,621,349 1,682,142
**----- End of picture text -----**
The loans are secured by a fixed and floating charge over all of the charity’s property and assets both present and future.
50
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **17. FUNDS: MOVEMENTS IN THE YEAR**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
A) Endowlment fund
Balance at Income Expenditure Transfers Balance at
1 April 2021 & Gains & Losses 31 March 2022
£ £ £ £ £
- - -
Josh Brown Bursary Fund 19,407 19,407
Balance at Income Expenditure Transfers Balance at
1 April 2020 & Gains & Losses 31 March 2021
£ £ £ £ £
Josh Brown Bursary Fund 18,943 469 (5) - 19,407
B) Unrestricted funds
Balance at Income Expenditure Transfers Balance at
1 April 2021 & Gains & Losses 31 March 2022
£ £ £ £ £
General fund 1,111,748 3,371,713 (3,368,168) 112,403 1,227,696
Balance at Income Expenditure Transfers Balance at
1 April 2020 & Gains & Losses 31 March 2021
£ £ £ £ £
General fund 1,115,209 2,798,658 (2,826,966) 24,847 1,111,748
**----- End of picture text -----**
The Charity had no designated funds in the current or preceding year.
51
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **17. FUNDS: MOVEMENTS IN THE YEAR (continued)**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
A) Restricted funds
Balance at Income & Expenditure Transfers Balance at
1 April 2021 Gains & Losses 31 March 2022
£ £ £ £ £
- - -
T Howell Bursary 1,559 1,559
Sir John Houghton
- -
Bursary Fund 50,346 (750) 49,596
Zero Carbon Futures 5,000 - - - 5,000
Reaching the
Changemakers of the Future - - (152) 152 -
Erasmus - - (750) 750 -
Ethel and
-
Gwynne Morgan Trust 8,775 5,000 (3,213) 10,563
ZCB Hub & Innovation Lab 605,152 75,100 (299,453) (105,996) 274,803
Student Placement - 20,000 (20,070) 70 -
GSE Green Buildings 5,000 - - (5,000) -
Community Renewal Fund - 256,844 (156,840) (2,379) 97,625
K Chambers Rose Jessica-Maia - 18,500 (1,350) - 17,150
Anonymous Fund - 50,000 - - 50,000
675,832 425,444 (482,577) (112,403) 506,296
**----- End of picture text -----**
Where permissible under the terms of the funding, any remaining balance on individual funds has been transferred to unrestricted funds.
52
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **17. FUNDS: MOVEMENTS IN THE YEAR (continued)**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Fund name Purpose
T Howell Bursary To fund educational visits to CAT by schools from six specific counties of
North Wales.
Zero Carbon Futures To develop new materials for teaching based on Zero Carbon Britain
research for use by Engagement Team.
Sir John Houghton Bursary Fund Bursary fund for GSE students.
Reaching the To inspire children, adults and students to make sustainable changes to their
Changemakers of the Future lives and communities.
GSE Green Buildings To provide materials for the Graduate School’s student ‘Build Week’.
Student Placement Fund To support a student placement in a different department of CAT each year.
Erasmus To provide innovative ICT based tools and accompanying educational
resources issues relating to sustainable development.
Growing the Future CAT is designated hub for the National Botanic Garden of Wales ‘Growing
the Future’ of wildlife and the virtues of growing plants for food, fun, health
and well-being.
Ethel & Gwynne Morgan Trust To assist a successful student applicant with CAT Graduate School course
fees.
ZCB Hub & Innovation Lab To continue to develop the Zero Carbon Britain project, looking at how the
UK can transition rapidly to a Zero Carbon future.
Community Renewal Fund Grant funding for the Green Heart of Wales/Zero Carbon Wales project to
redevelop the site plan and visitor experience.
K Chambers Rose Jessica-Maia To assist a successful student applicant with CAT Graduate School course
fees.
A fund wishing To assist successful student applicants with CAT Graduate School course
to remain anonymous fees. Open to two students per year.
**----- End of picture text -----**
53
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **18. ANALYSIS OF ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Fund balances are represented by:
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total
Funds Funds Funds Funds
£ £ £ £
Tangible fixed assets 2,765,494 - - 2,765,494
Fixed asset investments 100 - - 100
Stocks 15,867 - - 15,867
Debtors 731,134 - - 731,134
Cash at bank 223,521 666,461 19,407 909,389
Creditors due within one year (950,607) (160,165) - (1,110,772)
Creditors due after more than one year (1,557,813) - - (1,557,813)
Net assets at 31 March 2022 1,227,696 506,296 19,407 1,753,399
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total
Funds Funds Funds Funds
£ £ £ £
Tangible fixed assets 2,828,015 - - 2,828,015
Fixed asset investments 100 - - 100
Stocks 29,249 - - 29,249
Debtors 250,258 951 - 251,209
Cash at bank 376,986 684,990 19,407 1,081,383
Creditors due within one year (751,628) (10,110) (761,738)
Creditors due after more than one year (1,621,232) - (1,621,232)
Net assets at 31 March 2021 1,111,748 675,831 19,407 1,806,986
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **19. OPERATING LEASE COMMITMENTS**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Annual commitments under operating lease are as follows:
2022 2021
£ £
Expiry date:
Within one year 660 660
Between two and five years - -
660 660
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **20. CAPITAL COMMITMENTS**
The Charity had no capital commitments outstanding at the year-end (2021: none)
54
**Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022**
## **21. ULTIMATE CONTROLLING PARTY**
The Company is limited by guarantee and has no share capital. Control is vested in the Board of Trustees.
## **22. CORPORATION TAX**
The Company is exempt from tax on income and gains in accordance with sections 466 to 493 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 to the extent that these are applied for its charitable objects.
## **23. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS**
The Trustees and Senior Management team are not aware of any related party transactions that require disclosure.
## **24. OTHER INFORMATION**
## **COVID-19 Pandemic**
Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic continued to have implications for the shortterm operation of CAT during 2021 due to various government restrictions still being in place, we were able to reopen our visitor centre in May 2021 with controls and procedures in place. There are not considered to be any implications for the reporting and recognition of amounts in these financial statements covering the year to 31st March 2022. Further detail in relation to the going concern assumption, which is still considered to be appropriate, is included in note 1 b) above and also in the Trustees Report.
55