Case Study: Viscountess Barrington Homes for Disadvantaged Ex-service Personnel

If a charity does not have sufficient funds to carry out necessary works to their almshouses, part of the service The Almshouse Association offers its member charities is financial help in the forms of grants and loans.

In April 2024, The Almshouse Association provided the almshouses of Viscountess Barrington Homes for Disadvantaged Ex-service Personnel with a £100,000 loan to support the refurbishment of a pair of semi-detached almshouses.   

The Trust kindly put together the case study below for us to share with you.

Background

The Trust was established in the early 1920s to promote well-being in the village and to provide homes for veterans returning from World War I. Most of the homes were built in the 1920s and included workrooms to encourage occupants to provide for a living for themselves.

An additional  block of four apartments was completed in 2004; one of the original semi-detached houses on the High Street was converted to two flats in the 1990s; and an adjacent semi-detached house was converted into flats in 2023.

The Objects of the Trust
To provide housing for beneficiaries, defined as former members of the armed forces or dependants thereof, who are in need by virtue of disability, financial hardship, sickness or old age, and are capable of independent living. Applicants should ordinarily be resident within 100 miles of Shrivenham or have family ties to the Shrivenham area.

There are currently 14 homes (6 houses and 8 apartments) housing 21 adult residents. A long-term program of major refurbishment commenced in the 2020s to ensure that the properties are fit for purpose, particularly in terms of insulation and the prevention of damp. One block of two semi-detached houses was completed in 2021, and the conversion of a three bedroomed house into two flats was completed in 2023. Further modernisation and refurbishment were planned when finances allowed, the most important of which were the semi-detached houses at 1 and 3 Recreation Ground Lane.

Challenges

The biggest challenges to overcome to enable the project to begin were: the identification of available finance; and where to house the residents while the work was ongoing.

The Trust had enough in reserve to fund half of the project, but it would be so much more economical to complete the whole project at once. The approval of a £100,000 loan from The Almshouse Association provided the impetus required to satisfy this objective.

When one of the residents in a neighbouring house had to vacate to be moved into care, this gave the opportunity for both pairs of residents to be temporarily housed for approximately 3 months each in the vacated house while their houses were being upgraded.

Effect on Residents

The residents of one of the houses had been suffering medically from the damp state of their home, with mould being a frequent visitor. Their neighbours had no upstairs bathroom, which meant a trip down the stairs and through the kitchen to visit the loo in the middle of the night. Of course, this was an improvement over that experienced by the original residents in the 1920s, when the only loo was the outside privy!

For both houses, there was very limited insulation with sound proofing also very poor. The chimneys were no longer in use and were a cause of ongoing maintenance costs. The render had been patched over the years but was hollow in places, was of the old style non-breathable variety, and cracked.  This did not help with water ingress, insulation or airflow.

The Work

The project was scoped and estimated at approximately £200,000, to cover the refurbishment of both houses, internally and externally. This included creating  open plan kitchen-diners, updated kitchens and downstairs shower rooms, and (for one of the properties) an upstairs bathroom. The heating systems were also to be replaced. External work included removal of the original (1920s) chimneys and very old render, replacing with a modern breathable render system. The guttering and roof trim were also renewed.  These improvements have enabled the residents to enjoy much better insulated, damp proofed and therefore warmer homes.

Refurbishing these two properties continued the theme of modernising the property portfolio which had begun pre-covid.  A major driver for this project and the wider improvement program is to improve the energy performance of our homes, both to protect the environment and to ease the running costs for our residents. This is in line with our goal of ensuring that active and independent residents can enjoy accommodation in line with 21^st century living, at contribution rates that are affordable to those in need. 

The Almshouse Association Loan

Whilst we had enough funds to do at least one of the houses, it was much more economic to do the complete block. The £100,000 loan ensured that this was possible and expedited the overall property portfolio enhancement project. Without it, one pair of our residents would still be living in below par accommodation, waiting for us to rebuild our cash reserves.

In hindsight, and if we had realised the option of Almshouse Association funds a year earlier, we would have changed the project schedule to begin with the exterior work.  

It would also have been beneficial to have done this external work in the spring-summer, rather than late autumn-winter when the many wet days were not conducive to removing/applying the render. The removal of the old render proved more difficult than envisaged due to it being placed over a metal mesh; this took longer than expected to remove, and caused some disturbance to the inside walls, meaning some rework internally. However, our excellent contractor made good all the damage at very little additional cost.

Residents’ view

The overall retrospective view was that the disruption of moving out for the duration of the work was very worthwhile. They now appreciate much cosier and more modern homes which they hope to enjoy for many years.

Local residents have also commented on the improved external view of the properties.

The Trust’s advice to members contemplating a loan

As long as you have a justifiable business case, then bite the bullet sooner rather than later. The residents really do appreciate the time and trouble.

Did you know?…

Funds used by The Almshouse Association to make loans to charities last in perpetuity. Loans to charities are interest-free with just a small setup fee. As they pay back the loan over a 10 year period, the Association is able to re-lend out the funds over and over again, ensuring more almshouses can be built or older almshouses can be preserved with a new roof or modernised with extensions or wet rooms. So if you are thinking about contributing to our rolling charity support fund by making a donation or leaving money in your Will, you will know that your money will be helping to change people’s lives for the better for many, many generations to come.

To find out more, please click here

_{posted February 2025}