Statement on Association investments

For the information of Association members and following procedures set in The Almshouse Association’s approved Investment Policy

The Almshouse Association has traditionally held two investment portfolios. In 2019, The Association appointed Waverton to manage the majority of the Charity’s investments and retained M&G Investments to manage the smaller portion of the Charity’s assets.

The Almshouse Association Investment Sub Committee or Finance & General Purposes Committee recently reviewed the performance of the smaller M&G portfolio this year and has decided to move this portfolio from M&G to Waverton, thus focussing the Association’s investments with one investment manager, rather than two.

The Investment Sub-Committee / F&GP was advised by a charity investment consultant reviewing many organisations, seeking the best value for the Association. The review was carried out in a professional way ensuring good governance and transparency.

Every member charity of the Association will have their own investment criteria within their finance policy and will come to their own conclusions about how best to manage their investments for the good of the charity.

posted 13 October 22

Govt consultation on cap

Association Response to Government Consultation on Cap to WMC increases

The Almshouse Association has been working with our member charities to put together a response to the government consultation on capping increases to Weekly Maintenance Contributions (WMC) from April 2023.
Note: This cap would only apply to charities who are also Registered Providers of Social Housing (RPs).

As part of this process, we promised that we would allow members to view our response which is focused on achieving an exemption from any proposed cap, specifically for almshouse charities. As well as making our submission, we are meeting with the government team handling the consultation to make an explicit case for support of an exemption.

We will continue to keep members up to date as the situation develops.

Our response can be found here.

posted 11 October 22

New Almshouse Research published

We are pleased to share our most recent research report into how almshouse charities managed during the pandemic.

The Almshouse Association commissioned The Smith Institute to carry out the report so that we could learn about the difference our members made and what lessons we can learn for future emergencies.

The report, based on an extensive series of interviews, seeks to understand the impact of the pandemic on almshouse charities and their residents and examine the impact almshouse charities made since the first lockdown.

It places the spotlight on the positive contribution the almshouse model made during the public health crisis and extended periods of social isolation, identifies the lessons that can be drawn from the past two years and highlights the challenges the sector faces going forward.

The Smith Institute and The Almshouse Association hosted an online event on 11th October 2022 to mark the launch of a new report looking at the impact of the pandemic on almshouses.

A recording of the event can be found here.

Please click on the graphic below to download the full report.

posted 11 October 2022

Burnham-on-Sea almshouses mark historic anniversary

written by Burnham-On-Sea.com
September 15, 2022

Almshouses in Burnham-on-Sea made a splash in the local news with their special anniversary celebration attended by trustees, residents and local dignitaries. Nick Phillips, CEO of The Almshouse Association was delighted to be on the guest list and to be asked to say a few words.

“A special event has been held in Burnham-On-Sea to mark the historic anniversary of a set of almshouses.

Ellen’s Cottages in Burnham-on Sea’s Berrow Road were built in 1868 with an endowment given by philanthropist John Saunders in memory of his late wife. The cottages have since been offered to “poor widows and spinsters of good character” and are now overseen by a charitable trust, which is marking its 75th year.

This week’s event was attended by over 50 local people including the charitable trust’s trustees, local residents and dignitaries. The function started with a period of silence and a tribute to The Queen from Burnham’s Mayor Cllr Lesley Millard and a prayer from Rev Graham Witts.

Trustee Tony Roost explained the history behind the cottages and its link with the philanthropist. He called the building “a real historic gem.” He noted that philanthropist John Saunders was born in 1809 and his father was a successful wine importer. When John’s wife Ellen Louisa died at age 53 in Burnham in 1865, he decided to build Ellen’s Cottages in her memory for the benefit of ‘poor women’.

His will amounted to £80,000, which in today’s money would amount to around £9.5milliion. The money was left to hospitals, a refuge and charities that helped people with untreatable diseases, the destitute, and homeless.

During this week’s event, Nick Phillips, Chief Executive of the Almshouses Association, praised the local team who oversee the building, adding that they have had to undertake major repair work in recent years.

The Mayor added that the building is “a wonderful community asset” that will benefit local people for years to come.”

The residents of the almshouses joined in the event to mark the anniversary

The event included music from the King Alfred Concert Band

Trustees and guests mark the special occasion

photos credit burnham-on-sea.com

posted Oct 22

Almshouses in Wiltshire Life

Wiltshire Life has just published the first of three articles by Gary Lawrence taking a look into the almshouse world, beginning with a visit to one of the oldest.

Lawrence begins his piece in the sitting room of Winifred Alford, an 88-year-old former hospital almoner who has lived at the College of Matrons almshouse for 18 years, having moved there from Donhead St Andrew near Shaftesbury where she felt no longer able to live on her own somewhere so remote.

” I feel very fortunate to live here, it is a beautiful building and it has so much history. I feel secure, I don’t have to worry about the upkeep or maintenance of a home and there are people close by should they be needed”
Winifred, resident

Wiltshire Life has kindly shared a copy of the article with us. Its beautifully and sensitively written and we look forward to their next articles that include Salisbury Almshouses, the Hospital of St John in Heytesbury and Zeal’s Almshouses. Please click here to read in full.

posted 6 October 2022

The New Almshouse Association Awards launched!

The New Almshouse Association Awards are now open for your 2022 submissions!

The awards have been updated to include environmental innovations and to provide clear definitions for each award to ease the award submission path. They will continue to represent recognition for real innovation and achievement within the almshouse movement.

The upgrading and improvement of the environmental impact of buildings is now paramount. Remodelling almshouses or building new almshouses in a way that retains the integrity of their historic buildings is particularly challenging, requires great skill to navigate. Our members are doing an incredible job to ensure their almshouses are well maintained and kept warm and welcoming, whilst also adhering to environmental criteria.

With this in mind, The Almshouse Association Awards recognise and reflect the ever-growing environmental aspects that our members are taking on board when redeveloping or building new. The also encapsulate and honour all the tremendous hard work of our member charities, highlighting the wonderful innovations and life-enhancing projects that are taking place throughout our membership.

The four awards are:

We hope you enjoy being a part of these new awards and you will find, over the coming months, we will be engaging with you to support you with your submissions. We know so many of you have such incredible sites and we will be encouraging you to share these with your peers by partaking in the awards.

Our aim is to build on the quality and high standards of our previous award winners, setting goals and establishing, in many cases, best practices within the almshouse movement.

Please click here to go to our Award pages where you will find criteria, guidelines and submission formats along with tips and design briefs and former award winners.

Today, more than ever, it’s so important to recognise the vital role almshouses and almshouse trustees play in today’s society. We look forward to receiving your submissions!

The deadline for submissions is 31st January 2023.

posted 6 October 2022

Almshouses for young people in Surrey

The Poland Trust

The Almshouse Association was honoured to be invited to the opening ceremony of new almshouses built by The Poland Trust to house younger people in housing need

Celebrating the opening of the new almshouses Sept 22

The Poland Trust is a charity based in Brockham, Surrey originally set up by Sidney Michael Poland who lived in the village and supported many village organisations during his lifetime and arranged for the charity to be established after his death.

In the 1950s the first trustees built six almshouses and a warden’s flat for villagers in hardship, need or distress on land left by Mr Poland. Since then four more units have been built at Poland House but there was no further space at that beautiful site just under Box Hill.

Fifteen years ago the trustees decided that the elderly in Brockham and the three surrounding villages of Betchworth, Buckland and Leigh were well served by available accommodation but that there was a need for affordable housing for a younger generation.

It took twelve years to find a suitable site in an area of outstanding natural beauty in the greenbelt until a local landowner offered the Trust a corner of one of his fields which enabled the real work to start.

Negotiations began with Mole Valley District Council for the site to be designated as a Rural Exception Site for planning purposes and the Council provided a significant grant for the project which will provide homes for applicants from their Housing List with a connection to the the villages. The site is large enough for twelve homes for almshouse residents and five self-build plots which the Trust has sold at 75% of market value to local residents with a covenant that they can only be sold on at 80% of market value and have to be offered to people in the local community.

A local Brockham architect drew plans which would provide four one-bed flats in a single almshouse building; two one-bed houses, five two-bed houses and one three-bed house in a courtyard for the almshouse dwellings; and five detached houses for the self-build plots all of which reflect the rural nature of this very sensitive area.

The trustees selected Scandia-Hus Ltd of East Grinstead as the builder as their timber-frame construction system provides high levels of insulation and should be low maintenance which is important for future generations of trustees. Scandia-Hus understood from the outset what the trustees were trying to achieve and have proved to be extremely good partners. From the architect’s plans which were used to obtain planning permission they agreed a fixed price contract with the trustees which included all the detailed drawings needed together with all the groundworks as well as the building work. This helped with the financial control of the project especially during a period of increasing material costs.

Financing the project is a combination of the grant from Mole Valley District Council, the sale of the self-build plots, the Trust’s own resources and a loan from CAF Bank. A large amount of money was spent before anything appeared out of the ground which was frustrating at the time, not least because a sophisticated flood alleviation scheme had to be incorporated in the design, but overall the project stayed close to the original expectations.

“The Almshouse Association was helpful to the trustees in persuading Mole Valley District Council that the twelve units owned by the charity should be almshouses rather than the rented accommodation with which the Council is more familiar and it helps the charity for all of its housing to be under the almshouse umbrella.”

As the project nears completion, the trustees are both happy and relieved that they have been able to create an asset for the local community in perpetuity and one of which they believe Mr Poland would approve.

Posted 3 October 22

P&G update: 26.09.22

The Almshouse Association regularly posts a news summary of the latest Policy and Governance legislation that could impact / requires action from our member charities, with links to further information where applicable. Please find below our latest summary:

Government

Support for energy bills announced – Prime Minister Liz Truss has outlined the support that the government will provide to help with the spiralling costs of energy.

The Energy Price Guarantee is a package of measures which includes:
- Suspending green levies on energy bills
- Capping household bills to £2500 per year for the next two years
- Providing the £400 energy rebate
- Equivalent support will be offered to those on heat networks
- A fund will be established to support charities with their energy costs this winter, offering an equivalent guarantee for the next 6 months

More information can be found here.

Government announces support for non-domestic energy bills – The Government has now published details on the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which will help those on non-domestic (business) tariffs this winter. This will include charities who provide energy to their residents.
The support will initially be available from 1^st October 2022 until 31^st March 2023, with further support expected after this for the most vulnerable sectors.

The scheme will be available to everyone on a non-domestic contract including:
- businesses
- voluntary sector organisations, such as charities
- public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals and care homes
  who are:
- on existing fixed price contracts that were agreed on or after 1 April 2022
- signing new fixed price contracts
- on deemed / out of contract or variable tariffs
- on flexible purchase or similar contracts

The support will be applied to all bills by suppliers, and you will not need to apply for it to take effect.
– Our full article on the support can be found here.
– A more detailed breakdown of the support can be found on the government announcement here.

Response to Tenant Satisfaction Measures Consultation Published -The Regulator of Social Housing has published its response to its consultation on the introduction of Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) for Registered Providers of Social Housing.

The TSMs are a set of measures on which are aimed to reflect the performance of housing providers, included registered providers who are almshouses. Following the consultation some of the TSMs have been amended, but there will still be 22 data points covering measures gathered from residents and housing providers based upon levels of satisfaction, complaints, health & safety checks etc.

For most almshouse charities who have less than 1,000 dwellings, there are provisions to collect this data every year or every two years. For those with over 1,000 dwellings, it will be an annual requirement.

The TSMs are due to come into effect on 1^st April 2023. Full details on the response and supplementary information can be found here.

The Charity Commission

Protect your charity from fraud and cybercrime – The Charity Commission has published guidance on protecting charities from fraud and cybercrime ahead of Charity Fraud Awareness Week (17 – 21 October 2022).

Full guidance can be found here.

RECORD OF PREVIOUS 2021/22 Policy and Governance updates:

Posted 26 September 22

Government announces support for non-domestic energy bills

The Government has now published details on the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which will help those on non-domestic (business) tariffs this winter. This will include charities who provide energy to their residents.

The support will initially be available from 1^st October 2022 until 31^st March 2023, with further support expected after this for the most vulnerable sectors.

The scheme will be available to everyone on a non-domestic contract including:
– businesses
– voluntary sector organisations, such as charities
– public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals and care homes

who are:
– on existing fixed price contracts that were agreed on or after 1 April 2022
– signing new fixed price contracts
– on deemed / out of contract or variable tariffs
– on flexible purchase or similar contracts

The support comes from a cap being placed on the unit price on your electricity and gas, this cap has been set at:
– £211 per megawatt hour (MWh) for electricity
– £75 per MWh for gas

For comparison, this compares to £600 for electricity and £180 for gas which had been expected this winter.

The support will be applied to all bills by suppliers and you will not need to apply for it to take effect.

If you agreed your fixed price contract / tariff on or after 1 April 2022 you will get support if the calculated wholesale element of the price you are paying is above the government supported price.
If your fixed tariff is based on wholesale prices below the government supported price, you will not be eligible for support.
For members who use heat networks or provide energy to their residents the Government advises:

“We expect businesses and other organisation to pass on the benefits under this scheme through to the end user in a reasonable and proportionate way. This will ensure support, for instance, to customers of heat networks and park home residents.”

A more detailed breakdown of the support can be found on the Government announcement here.

The Almshouse Association will continue to discuss the needs of the almshouse movement to be included in any future support beyond 31^st March 2023 and would greatly appreciate evidence/case studies from member charities regarding the impact of the high energy costs and how the support provided through this scheme is ensuring services continue.

If you have any further questions, please get in touch with Jack Baldan via jackbaldan@almshouses.org

Posted 22 September 22

Heating advice notes

The challenge of sustainable heating was an important agenda item at a recent Peter Birtwistle Trust Almshouse Networking Event. They asked a local expert for his advice and have kindly made it available to the membership.

Our thanks to John Book of JRB Environmental Design Ltd for putting together the below notes and to Alison Evans, Executive Officer Peter Birtwistle Trust for sharing them with us.

Heating advice notes for almshouses

The initial approach should always be taken as fabric first, i.e., to look at ways of improving the thermal properties of the buildings through the provision of double glazing, roof and wall insulation.
Lighting should be looked at with the provision of LED lamps wherever possible.
Look at the possibilities of introducing Solar PV panels for the generation of electricity, and/or wherever possible for the domestic hot water usage look at the provision of Solar Thermal panels connected into a twin coil cylinder.
The heat source is the big challenge for us at the moment certainly with the drive to move away from fossil fuels, however, the following considerations should be made.
- The initial thoughts are to try and changeover onto electrically based systems, but unless you can introduce the use of heat pumps which have a proven track record of providing 3kW of heat from 1kW of electricity, then as the cost of electricity is still currently approx., 3 times more expensive that gas, then any other electrically based systems may prove to be unaffordable to run.
- Heat pumps take the form of 2 types, i.e., either air source heat pumps (ASHP) or ground source heat pumps (GSHP). Whilst GSHPs operate with a slightly better efficiency they are probably twice the cost to install than ASHPs simply because of the ground works required to either accommodate pipe loops or boreholes.
- Ideally the use of heat pumps would need a 3-phase electrical supply although there are some single phase units available for domestic size ASHPs, but again the existing loading on the incoming electrical supply would have to be checked for capacity availability.
- The only real further consideration for the use of heat pumps would be just what the existing heating system is that the present boiler is serving, as this would have been sized to provide the heat output with water supplied from the boiler at a mean temperature of 70°C, whereas heat pumps only provide a mean temperature of 50°C. This will mean that if you simply put say an ASHP onto an existing radiator system that you would have to run the system longer and lose any carbon benefits, whilst increasing running costs. Hence if heat pumps are to be looked at then the existing heating system may have also to be considered for replacement.
- If the electrical supply is inadequate then the option may have to be to still remain with a boiler system, and where a gas supply existing then the consideration would be to look at the use of a ‘hydrogen ready’ gas boiler. New boilers are probably twice as efficient as old/existing gas boilers and hence there would be an immediate reduction in carbon generation in the order of 50%. We are currently being advised that a 20% hydrogen gas mix may become available in the next 2/3 years, through the national grid network system, and of course when this does so the already reduced carbon generation from any new/replacement gas boiler would be further significantly reduced.
- Where gas is not available then the use of either a bio-fuel oil or a bio-LPG boiler could be considered, which would obviously show good reductions in carbon generation, albeit these costs are more expensive than conventional oil or LPG.
- Considerations will need to be made as whether each almshouse has its own dedicated boiler system, or whether a group of almshouses is served from a common boiler plant.
- If the almshouses are served individually then the foregoing comments would apply, if however, they are served from a common source, or whether this option may be worth looking into as an alternative, then the following other options could be considered.
- Depending upon electrical supply capacity issues, it may be possible to consider ‘hybrid’ systems, having a mix of heat pumps and boilers with the heat pump providing enough heat to maintain a background warmth in the properties at say 15°C, with a hydrogen or biofuel boiler simply being used to raise that temperature to say 21°C when required.
- Rather than considering direct heating from a central heat plant source to the existing heating and hot water services within each almshouse then an option would be to provide Heat Interface Units (HIU) within each almshouse, which are connected by heating flow & return pipework from the central heat source, which could still be a ‘hybrid’ system if supplies allowed.
- Another option would be to provide to internal wall mounted water source heat pumps which would be served by an ambient water pipe loop which could be taken from any ground source available, or indeed a centralised heat pump system. This type of system is supplied from a water loop at say 30°C and then is converted internally up to normal heating boiler temperatures.
- The use of programmable thermostat controls which can be accessed remotely would be essential to consider so that actual space temperatures and operating times may be assessed.

Summary Conclusions

Clearly whilst we all have a duty to try and reduce the carbon being generated from the heating and hot water systems, which will almost certainly require significant capital expenditure, it is also important that we should still consider making whatever heat source options are to be selected, that these are still affordable to run and maintain.

The first stage of any considerations for this would be to initially assess / survey just what the current systems comprise of along with structural assessment for thermal insulation, and of course types of lighting being used.

Note: The products/services and claims made above have not been evaluated by The Almshouse Association. Articles that recommend products/services are for information purposes only and are not endorsed by the Association. Information is provided for the general guidance of trustees and clerks, who should take their own professional advice where necessary.

posted 20 September 22