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The missing piece in the capacity building puzzle

Place Process Opinions

By Antonia Swinson, CEO of the Ethical Property Foundation

 

The last twelve months proved a rollercoaster for everyone in London’s voluntary sector and 2023 is unlikely to be any easier, so what did we learn last year which we can use in the coming months?

Our 2022 London Charity Property Matters Survey funded by City Bridge Trust (available free on www.propertyhelp.org) revealed just what a financial hit the sector in London took from the pandemic, with little time to prepare for soaring energy bills. No surprises there perhaps, but in 2023 we need to consider urgently how this changes the way we work for our community and deliver services. Can we share our skills, experience, and properties?  

Hybrid working has become the new normal, and as a result, community center managers are now linking the heating provided to the income generated. Rent levels and the new Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards, which will be implemented this year, are also important factors to consider. These standards may force landlords of older, energy-inefficient properties to sell or develop them.

There is a limit to how much an organisation can thrive without security of tenure and warm, dry, affordable conditions for staff and volunteers to work in and for the public to use

How can funding be adapted to build a resilient, thriving sector capable of delivering for our communities?

Everyone talks about capacity building within the sector and improving standards of service delivery, but there is a limit to how much an organisation can thrive without the security of tenure and warm, dry, affordable conditions for staff and volunteers to work in and for the public to use. Even if hybrid working is the new norm, community facing services still need bricks and mortar buildings to operate in.

I would ask that funders consider including a section in their funding guidelines on core costs, which specifically addresses property, by, for example, asking charities to provide a named trustee with responsibility for this area.

One event in 2022 sticks in my mind. In July, EPF ran a roundtable for BME-led London VCOs with Community Southwark, where we learned what a tough time these organisations, many long established, had endured during the pandemic with long-standing consequences - often due to buildings closing or eviction. There were shared photographs of shoddy physical working conditions and tales of insecure leases, evictions, and constant uprooting – all because every penny had to be spent and accounted for as narrowly focussed project funding. They could not afford the legal support to negotiate a proper lease. As one participant put it, whose parents experienced 1950s London landlords, ‘it’s like living with Rachman” (a landlord who was notorious for exploiting his tenants).

Even if hybrid working is the new norm, community facing services still need bricks and mortar buildings to operate in

As the only dedicated property advice charity serving the capital’s voluntary sector, EPF believes that a legal services pot for London’s VCOs to ensure decent, fairly negotiated leases would be a real win.

The Ethical Property Foundation is here to help. We have a team of ten chartered surveyors plus a Register of trusted London-based solicitors, highly experienced in charity property law, who work on a discounted fee basis.

Do get in touch with us here. If London Funders members are interested in a wider conversation about how funders can support the voluntary sector to secure fair leases to deliver their services, then please get in touch with the team here.

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