Latest updates from the Charity Commission, June 2023.

Selling, leasing and disposing of land.

Changes relating to the selling, leasing or otherwise disposing of charity land came into force on 14th June 2023.

It states that Charities must comply with certain legal requirements before they dispose of charity land. Disposal can include selling, transferring or leasing charity land.

Some of these changes are applicable with immediate effect whilst others are expected to come into force by the end of 2023. Read more here.

Using permanent endowment.

Put simply, permanent endowment is property that your charity must keep rather than spend.

The Act introduces new statutory powers to enable

• charities to spend, in certain circumstances, from a ‘smaller value’ permanent endowment fund of £25,000 or less without Commission authority

• certain charities to borrow up to 25% of the value of their permanent endowment fund without Commission authority

Charities that cannot use the statutory powers will require Charity Commission authority.

A new statutory power enables charities that have opted into a total return approach to investment to use permanent endowment to make social investments with a negative or uncertain financial return, provided any losses are offset by other gains. Read more here.