2023-02-28-accounts - Leigh And Bransford Memorial Hall And Recreation Ground

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Leigh and Bransford Memorial Hall and Recreation Ground Sherridge Road, Leigh Sinton, Malvern, WR13 5DE

Leigh and Bransford Memorial Hall Committee of Trustees

ANNUAL REPORT 2022-23

MARCH 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023: BACK TO OUR “NEW NORMAL”

INTRODUCTION

In summary 2022-23 was a year of transition and re-set for the Memorial Hall.

By March 2022 - the first month of our financial year which ended on 28 February 2023 – most covid-19 restrictions had been lifted and the trustees were looking forward to a more settled year ahead. It was a period of transition that, post-pandemic, social commentators were already starting to call ‘the new normal’ . For our part, the trustees hoped this ‘new normal’ would be characterised by a sustained return to a healthy volume of regular and occasional hires. Achieving this would not only stabilise our self-supporting financial viability – as we moved away from a reliance on government-funded NNDR (National Non-Domestic Rates) support grants, which had now ceased – but also to give us the confidence to embark on our next round of planned ‘green’ improvements to the building and its amenities.

But what no one was expecting as the year began, was the sudden and exponential hike in inflation. Soaring inflation, like the pandemic before it, if not strategically addressed, could pose a serious threat to our Hall’s financial viability. As the year progressed, spiralling inflation dramatically increased the cumulative cost of our annual overheads (operating expenses) and necessary (planned or unplanned) maintenance. It was clear that we would need an effective financial strategy to mitigate the impact of these rising costs because, if left unchecked, our cash reserves would be rapidly depleted. It was time for a re-set; but we had to exercise caution. Simply increasing our hire charges too steeply and too quickly (to counter our rising costs) would potentially make hiring the Hall unaffordable for many and therefore negatively impact our ambition to see a return to prepandemic hire levels.

The period of rising inflation – which peaked in October at just over 11% - we are now led to believe, was at least partly due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The consequences of which quickly led to a global surge in energy prices (gas, electricity, and oil) and with that the inevitable rises in food, raw materials, and other goods and services.

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Perversely, and by sheer co-incidence, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24th, 2022, the exact same day the government published a statement on its website that all remaining covid-19 legal restrictions in England had been withdrawn. The revised guidance to the public being to practice specific, safe and responsible behaviours as the primary means of stopping the spread of the virus.

So, at the very same moment that our freedom of movement was being restored here in England, other world events were conspiring to restrict our financial freedoms through a protracted period of rampant inflation. In the event, however, the trustees were able to develop a sufficiently robust fiscal strategy over the year to consolidate the Hall’s return to financial stability – with the result that hire income did indeed stabilise and we were able to embark on implementing our planned improvements, (with the help of further grant income). What follows is my Chair’s report detailing how that was achieved and what we, as trustees, managed to do.

OUR OBJECTIVES FOR 2022-23

We had two main objectives for the year just ended.

Our first was to ensure, as far as we were able, we achieved a sustained return to financial stability.

Our second , which was obviously contingent on achieving the first objective, was to implement an agreed schedule of improvements to the Hall and its amenities.

Our measure of success for the first objective was to at least cover our annual overheads and make a small surplus just through the income that hiring the hall would generate. Of course, we would continue to seek out and apply for any relevant grants and awards to supplement our annual income to improve the facilities, but unless we could be financially self-sufficient to cover at least our annual overheads through hire income alone, we would know that our financial strategy to achieve this first objective would have failed.

Our measure of success for the second objective was whether we could then achieve the planned schedule of improvements we had agreed for the year.

HOW DID WE DO? MEASURING SUCCESS

Objective 1 – To achieve a sustained return to financial stability

When I look back at last year’s Annual Report, our records showed that it wasn’t really until November 2021 (or 9 months into our financial year) that hirers’ confidence returned sufficiently to show a sustained upturn in bookings.

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In that year (2021-22) although we recorded a gross total of 297 bookings (which equated to an average of almost 6 bookings per week) half of those bookings were made in the last 4 months of our financial year, in other words from November to the following end of February – which reminded us how difficult the first two-thirds of that previous year had been. Our out-turn statistics showed that as our regular hirers (that is local groups, clubs, societies, schools, training organisations and the parish council) slowly returned to their normal schedule of meetings, these accounted for almost three-quarters of all hires (of which just 20 or 9% were cancelled due to re-imposed, short-term covid-19 restrictions). By comparison, our one-off (i.e., occasional) hires were significantly down (weddings, family gatherings, children’s parties, desk-top sales, church groups, quiz evenings, concerts and the like) being more severely impacted because of the continuing uncertainty about new covid-19 strains emerging during those first 8 months. We originally recorded just over 60 oneoff hires (still slightly more than one a week on average), but when we factored in the 13 cancellations, this reduced to 47.

Nevertheless, the late surge in bookings from November ensured that we ended that year with a healthy carry-forward income, boosted quite considerably by the final two, so-called, NNDR (National Non-Domestic Rates) grants and, to a lesser but no less welcome degree, the continuing Ofgem Renewable Heat Initiative (RHI) quarterly payback payments (for which we qualified after installing the air-source heating system). Our out-turns for 2021-22 would be the benchmark by which we could therefore compare our performance in the year just ended – 2022-23.

And so to the year just ended. By comparison, in 2022-23 we recorded a gross total of 364 hires – an increase of 22%. Of these, 75 were so-called ‘one-off’ or occasional hires, which is an improvement of 14 occasional hires compared with last year, or 23%. When cancellations are factored in, the total (net) number of hires falls by 28 to 336 or by just less than 8%. A further breakdown of the cancelled bookings shows that 18 of these were from our regular groups and 10 from occasional hirers.

Tables 1 and 2 below compare the two years using these statistics.

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Table 1 : Year on Year Comparison of Hires – gross figures (i.e. before cancellations)

Year	Regular Hires	Occasional Hires	Gross Total	% Regular	% Occasional
2021-22	236	61	297	79%	21%
2022-23	289	75	364	79%	21%
Year-on-Year Change	+ 53 (+22%)	+ 14 (+23%)	+67 (+23%)	0%	0%

Table 2 : Year on Year Comparison of Hires – net figures (i.e. after cancellations)

Year	Regular Hires	Occasional Hires	Net Total	% Regular	% Occasional
2021-22	216	47	263	82%	18%
2022-23	271	65	336	81%	19%
Year-on-Year Change	+ 55 (+25%)	+ 18 (+38%)	+73 (+28%)	-1%	+1%

Table 2 is the better measure (indicator) of our success in that it compares the actual (net) number of hires across the two years as it takes account of cancellations.

This shows that we successfully attracted a net total of 73 more hires in 2022-23 – an improvement of 28%. However, in order to assess more meaningfully the impact these additional hires had on our continuing financial viability, we need to compare our net income across the two years (that is income generated by hires, internal fundraising, rebates and ground rent, but excluding one-off grants and awards). The results are interesting as Table 3 (below) completes that analysis

Table 3 : Year-on-Year comparison of net Annual Hire Income (which excludes grants and awards but includes rebates and ground rent) and Annual Operating Expenses (excluding exceptional expenditure).

Year	Hire Income	Other generated income	Total Income	Year-on-Year Difference	Operating Expenses	% Change in O.E.	End of Year Balance
2020-22	£6,608	£3,968	£10,576	-	£9,705	-	+£871

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2021-22	£17,693	£4,387	£22,080	+£11,504	£11,339	+17%	+£10,741
2022-23	£17,219	£4,489	£21,708	-£372	£18,268	+88%	+£3,440

From this table we can see that despite the actual net total of hires for the year being up by 28%, our annual net income for the year was slightly down by -£372 from the previous year.

In 2021-22 the total net hire income of £17,693 divided by the net total of 263 hires equates to each hire generating an average of £67.27. Using that same metric, we might assume that by increasing the number of hires in the year just ended to 336, that would have generated approximately £22,600 (i.e. 336 x £67.27), which would be an improvement of almost £4,910. However, on closer analysis, the average amount per hire generated in 2022-23 dropped by £16.03 (or 24%) to £51.24.

The simple explanation for the difference is that in the previous year four weddings (that had been paid for in advance) were postponed by the hirers due to covid-19-related issues or other reasons. However, instead of cancelling and claiming a refund, the hirers decided to ‘bank’ the payment already made and re-schedule their weddings for 2022-23. This has had the effect of inflating the actual net amount recorded as hire income in 2021-22 by almost £2,500 and reducing the net hire income by the equivalent amount in 2022-23. We should also note that, as in previous years, the pattern and length of individual hires will always vary, so while it is useful to calculate the value of an ‘average hire’ for comparative purposes across each year, the more important figure is the annual net income itself that was generated and how that compares against the amount spent on our annual overheads.

As indicated in the opening summary, however, inflationary forces over the past year also caused us real concern as we experienced exponential growth in the cost of our annual overheads. Table 4 below shows how just four of our overheads have increased over the past three years.

Table 4 : Year-on-Year comparison of Highest Increases in Annual Overheads

Yr	Elect	% Increase (% Annual Overhead)	Clean	% Increase (% Annual Overhead)	WiFi	% Increase (% Annual Overhead)	Waste	% Increase (% Annual Overhead)	Total % of Annual Overhead
20-21	£2,835	- (29%)	£1,352	- (14%)	£0	- -	£107	- (1%)	44%
21-22	£3,062	8% (27%)	£2,135	60% (19%)	£115	- -	£0	- (0%)	47%
22-23	£7,398	141% (40%)	£2,626	23% (14%)	£952	727% (5%)	£862	705% (5%)	65%

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In 2020-21and 2021-22, four (of our 15) annual overhead budget lines (Electricity, Cleaning, Wi-Fi and Waste Collection) accounted for almost half (44% and 47% respectively) of our regular outgoings. In the year just ended, these same four budget lines increased to the point where they now accounted for 65% of our regular expenditure on annual overheads.

Additionally, our outgoings on most of the other 11 budget lines increased, but by smaller amounts, with the net result that our annual overheads for the past year increased by £6,930 or 61% on the previous year – and £4,336 of that increase (or 63%) is due to the exponential rise in the cost of electricity.

The fact that our total spend on annual overheads last year increased to just over £18,000, led us to agree a change to our cash reserves policy. In previous years the trustees had determined that they should keep a minimum balance in the Hall’s bank account of at least £12,000 to cover a year’s overheads. This was a prudent measure so that in the event of a major incident that prevented the Hall from generating income for 12 months, we would be able to survive financially for a year to allow sufficient time to put plans in place to secure its financial future. Trustees had also previously agreed that none of the forward income for hires received into its PayPal account would be transferred to its cash account until those hires had actually taken place – in case refunds were requested. In a normal year, up to £6,000 at any one time is held in our PayPal account for hires yet to take place. At year end the PayPal balance (less £6,000) is then transferred into our cash account.

Now, because of these inflationary increases, the trustees subsequently agreed that the current account (i.e., the Hall’s bank account) should, as far as was possible, never fall below £20,000 in order to keep a sufficient float in hand to cover at least one year’s overheads. The policy of keeping at least £6,000 in the Hall’s PayPal account (or the total amount covering forward hires at the end of each financial year – whichever is the greater) remains unchanged.

The net effect of this change of policy now means that at any one time, the Hall’s finances will be robust enough to cover unexpected events to the extent that it can meet all its financial commitments for at least 12 months. Cash that is held over and above this floor of

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£26,000 (i.e., £20,000 in the cash account and £6,000 in the PayPal account) will therefore be available to cover planned maintenance and improvements.

In conclusion, we were successful in achieving this first objective as our annual accounts show that at the end of Financial Year 2022-23, we had generated a total income of £30,016.19 and although our annual overheads had increased by almost £7,000 to £18,268.32 – we still had a surplus of Income over Annual Operating Expenses of £11,747.97. At year end, after taking into account the schedule of agreed improvements (which came to £37,665.33 – a proportion of which was covered by grant income) we carried forward an opening year cash balance in our Bank Account of £27,795.54 – which means that we had achieved our first objective for the year. Which brings me to our second objective for the year, namely, to implement an agreed schedule of improvements to the Hall and its amenities.

Objective 2 – To implement an agreed schedule of improvements to the Hall and its amenities

As indicated above, as the year progressed it became clear that we would be able to start the process of implementing our agreed improvements, the most pressing of which was the installation of solar panels and storage batteries. Soaring inflation together with a new supply contract that began in January 2022 meant that we could expect our energy costs to at least double, especially as we were already beginning to experience a growth in the number of hires.

Three years earlier we had removed the expensive and inefficient electric storage and wall mounted bar heaters and replaced them with a sustainable air-source heating system. That of course also used electricity so while the system was much more efficient in delivering heat and maintaining an ambient temperature overnight, it still required significant amounts of electricity to operate at peak efficiency. We were also successful in qualifying for the Renewable Heat Initiative (RHI) quarterly payments which, in an average year, would help offset our energy costs by £850.00 or more. But the rising unit costs would, if not strategically addressed, seriously deplete our cash reserves. So we had taken the decision in 2021-22 to fully explore the costs and benefits of installing solar panels and battery storage. At the start of the financial year 2022-23 (February) we had done most of the background research to convince all the trustees that we had to invest in such a system, even if we were unsuccessful in getting any grant aid to help with the cost. We knew that we had sufficient cash in our reserves to self-fund the purchase and installation, but as there were other improvements and necessary maintenance jobs to get done over the year, we set about fundraising

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to cover some of the total costs of our agreed programme of works – the total budget for which was calculated to be in the region of £26,000.00.

The programme of works and improvements finally agreed at our May meeting would comprise the following:

Install 25 Solar panels and 10kW battery storage system
Replace all the remaining old draughty windows and doors
Replace all the internal window blinds in the Large Hall with solar efficient vertical blinds
Replace the broken fencing along the perimeter of the plot along the Sherridge Road

At our July meeting we discussed the quotes and signed off on funding for the final set of replacement windows and the installation of solar panels and storage batteries. We also signed off on the new set of blinds for the large hall and replacement fencing along the Sherridge Road and the relevant purchase orders were placed.

We also were successful in obtaining two grant payments totalling £6,845.00, the breakdown of which is as below:

£1,845.00 from the Worcestershire County Council Divisional Fund (to cover the full cost of purchase and installation of the new window blinds, and
£5,000.00 from the Leigh and Bransford Parish Council (as a contribution to the cost of purchase and installation of the solar panel and battery storage system.

This enabled us to offset the total cost of the agreed list of improvements so that the call on our cash reserves was reduced to £19,155.00.

The grant funding was very welcome because over the course of the year we also had to fund some quite serious unplanned maintenance work, which would add almost a further £10,000 to total maintenance and improvements expenditure. This included:

Attending to a serious blockage in the sewerage system (which would involve some excavation work and septic tank emptying)
Repairing a large section of the roof over the lobby area and kitchen which had suffered serious storm damage in late December.

All this work was completed and paid for before the end of the financial year but, of course, our ambition for making further improvements does not stop there. As we ended the year discussions had already begun to agree an outline plan for further improvement work in the 2023-24 financial year. This will include, but may not be limited to:

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Acoustic panelling to the Small Hall ceiling (to improve the acoustics in the small hall)
Increasing the depth and efficiency of insulation in the roof void
Improving the ramp to the Large Hall to create step-free access
We will report our progress on these and other improvements in our next Annual Report.

CONCLUSION

As chair I continue to be grateful for the continued support, commitment and thoughtful debate of our trustees who generously give their time, ideas and expertise so willingly to govern, manage and constantly improve the Hall as a community meeting space – keeping it safe and viable for future generations.

In the coming year we hope to recruit some new blood trustees to refresh our committee membership and who will contribute fresh ideas and new ways of working (as appropriate).

Together, we can look forward to a positive 2023-24 as the past year has successfully built on and consolidated the progress made in 2022-23. We are ready for this ‘new, post-covid normal’ and the new opportunities and challenges that will be sure to emerge.

Jon Gamble, Chair of Trustees May 2023

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CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Sect40n A Independent Examinerfs Report Report to the trusteesl members ol Leigh and Bransford Memorial Hall and Recreation Ground On accounts for the year ended 28° February 2023 Charity no lif any) 523163 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity {"the Trust.) for the year ended 2810212021. Responslbilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust. you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Chat ilies Act 2011 ("the Acr). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145151{bJ of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed below "} in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in. any material respect: acGounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records Independent examinerfs statement I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should tE drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please delete the words in the braGkets if Ihey do nol apply. Signed: Date: 181h October 2023 Name: Louise Ruane Relevant professional qualificationls) or body (if any)- FCCA Address: Pear Tree Cottage, Yarrington Road. Alfrick, Worcs. WR6 SEX IER October 2018

Lei h and Bransford Memorial Hall ar R rea ion Gro Income and Ex nditure for thp nod ended 28th Februa 2023 2021122 2022123 INCOME 7.359.82 Hire of Buildings 10.334.85 Hire of Buildings IPayPal) 2.161.84 Ground rent 1,39).00 .200" Club 50.00 Advertising Fund Raising 8ank interest- CAF Bank lo,0. Donations & Grants 786.C6 Heating rebate Wedding Fayre 7.410.08 g,021_34 2.229.00 1,320.00 50.00 9,095.00 880.77 32.178ts7 TOTAL INCOME 30,016.19 EXPENDrruRE 2,135.50 Cleanerf5 Wages 86.59 Cleaning Materials Waste Collection 3.C62.60 Electricity 342.85 Water 1,081.58 Insurance 358.20 Heating serviung 115.86 Telephone 500.00 Rent of Lease for Car Park 2,626.50 439.11 990.98 7,398.62 545.55 1.139.70 348.25 952 24 500.00 1,931_72 Ground hKaint8nane8 Wedding Fayre 2,173.74 Website 712.49 Fire Equipment Maintenancelreplacement Inspectionsrrestin9 121.03 Licenses 1.361.68 Administraknn and sundries 132.00 680.08 11,339.63 Total Operating Expen 18,397.24 Fundraislng expenses 3.818.86 Extraordlnary: MaintenanGelrepairs 35.909.35 Pest ctrol Improvements indudry equipment 755.00 ?OO" Club prizes 1,038.00 717.98 15.913A9 TOTAL EXPENDITURE 16,265.08 Surplusldefieit of Income over expendiiure 56,062.S7 26.046.38 Sign Chal Signed... Tr•aBur•r IL. OC. >013

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Lei h and Bransford Memorial Hall and Rec Year ended 28 Februa 2023 Summa of Maintsnance Ex round nditu Date Su Detail Maintenance 2410312022 ABM Glass 0512022 Tyler Roberts 3010512022 Drain Unbl¢xk 1510612022 Tyler Roberts 1510612022 CaplorEnergy Sotar 1610612022 Drain Covers 19m712022 Tyler Robèrts 1910712022 Kevin Oliver Drains 1910712022 S Stokei Dn5 7,277.62 130.00 294.00 285.00 1,864.00 25.90 85.00 290.00 175.00 2510712022 Charles Maiden Drains 01108r2022 chae$ Maiden Drains 0810812022 Potholes l Lock 1110812022 A & E Fire & Securrty 22109r2022 Knighfvlick Fencing 0411012022 Clean Gutters 0411012022 Clean Gutter5 1411112022 MaSvern Blinds 14111J2022 ABM Glass 05112r2022 CaplorEnergy Solar 200.00 404.00 128.73 171.98 28.00 25.00 30.00 1.363.00 6,509.46 16.622.66 35,909.35

Lel h and Bransford Memorial Hall and Recrealion Ground Year ended 28 Februa 2023 Pal Summa Balar Date Payments Received Refunds Expenses Wtthdrawals Fees Balan 10.044.60 10,996.87 11,619.42 12,041.82 12,169.60 13,767.29 14.661.58 14,778.53 15,118.46 16,002.47 16,499.94 17,620 61 Mar-22 Apr-22 May-22 Jun-22 Jul-22 Aug-22 Sep-22 Oct-22 Nov-22 Dec-22 Jan-23 Fe&23 1,011.00 633.Tr) 429.20 198.00 1.690.00 908.00 175.00 1,022.00 899.00 507.00 1.277.¢XJ 1.638.00 14.73 10.45 6.80 2.22 24.31 13.71 3.05 707 14.99 10,996.87 11,619.42 12.041.82 12.169.60 13,767.29 14,661.58 14,778.53 15.118.46 16,002.47 16,499.94 17,620.61 5.065.94 675 138 18.33 24.67 14000 10,387.20 1.216 00 14,000.00 149.86

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