Call for Improved Council Compliance on Trustee Duties

Charity Commission letter a 'blow-by-blow account of Ealing's shortcomings'

Campaigners outside Victoria Hall. Picture: Roger Green

August 27, 2024

The Friends of Victoria Hall (FoVH) is saying that a letter sent by Charity Commission Chief Executive, David Holdsworth, to all local authorities in England and Wales could have been specifically written for Ealing Council.

Mr Holdsworth has called for urgent action from councils to ensure they comply with the legal responsibilities of charity trusteeship.

The letter, which coincides with updated guidance the regulator has developed with the Local Government Association, highlights that the Commission has dealt with several recent cases involving council trusteeship and warns of the “significant administrative headaches” councils could face from any failure to correctly comply with their duties. FoVH believes that one of the cases being referred to is the long running dispute over the future of Victoria Hall.

The Commission says that council trustees changing the use or status of charitable land or disposing of it in a way that is incompatible with its charitable purpose, sometimes without knowing it is charity property, is causing it a significant amount of casework. Mr Holdsworth warned councils that these failings can be costly and resource intensive to correct. In the last three years, the regulator’s casework teams have dealt with 38 separate cases involving local authorities and charitable land including Victoria Hall. To address this, the regulator has refreshed its guidance for local authorities and its supplementary guide designed specifically for councillors.

The guidance sets out advice for councils, including when they are making decisions as a trustee. It is for the council as trustee to make decisions about the charity, but it must comply with charity law when exercising its duties as a trustee.

Mr Holdsworth said, “More than 1,200 registered charities, including vital community assets, are governed by councils. The law expects them to comply with key responsibilities, at the heart of which sits the requirement to exclusively further the charity’s purposes.

“We’ve seen many instances where councils haven’t done this, resulting in members of the public rightly coming to us with concerns, and we have had to step in. In some cases, our involvement could have been avoided with earlier action by the local authority.”

Ealing Council has been challenged to carry out the ‘urgent action’ called for by the Charity Commission to comply with their legal responsibilities for the Victoria Hall Trust.

Roger Green, chair of FoVH said, “The letter from Charity Commission CEO David Holdsworth reads like a blow-by-blow account of Ealing’s shortcomings over the Victoria Hall.

“I have written to the Ealing Council chief executive to ask him what action he will be taking in response to the letter from Mr Holdsworth and in the light of new guidance for local authorities that the Commission published earlier this month.”

He added that, in addition to the problem highlighted of councils not keeping separate accounts and unknowingly using charity land for its own Council purposes, the most pertinent issue raised by Mr Holdsworth was the disposal of charity land by councils who then fail to manage conflicts of interest that can arise between its role as Trustee and statutory authority.

Mr Green added, “Clearly Ealing Council is one of these Commission cases. Ealing residents attended a Charity Tribunal in May 2022. We objected to a ’Scheme’ proposed by the Council and the Commission which would have destroyed part of the Victoria Hall and severely restricted community use of it.”

A council spokesperson said, “The council welcomes the publication of a letter and further guidance from the Charity Commission addressed to all local authorities in England and Wales. We have been working with the Charity Commission since 2017 to regularise and modernise arrangements for the Victoria Hall Trust and are confident that the Trust is already operating in accordance with this guidance.”