Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Sky High rents in Tonbridge High Street??..
According to a commercial property web site 48 High Street was let to The Childrens Trust (Tadworth) for £23,000 a year and the same agent let unit 10 Angel Walk, the old John Adams bookshop for £27,500 to the Barnados charity. I'm actually a bit surpised that this information is in the public domain; you'd think that it would be a guarded secret so as not to effect their future negotiations but there you go. Now you may think that these rents are fair enough I'm not really passing comment on that. I am a little amazed though that charities, in the first case quite a small charity, can afford these rents but they must be able to sell enough stuff to make it work or I guess they wouldn't be in business. I know one thing though: I wouldn't be have a viable business if I had to pay those costs or anything like it or perhaps I'm missing a trick....
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14 comments:
"bit surpised" is this a typo, a subconscious thought or a new word to be added to the Oxford?
Set yourself up as a charity and give a £50 donation for every 50 tonnes of books sold. Lots of companies get away with it.
Yes I really must run it through the spell chicker next time!
I think without knowing what sort of turnover your average charity shop in Tonbridge makes we can't really judge whether these rents are high or not.
Obviously this is just rent as well, not sure if charity shops have to pay business rates but there are still the utility bills to consider.
I would imagine they barely break even but I could be very wrong.
If this is the case then heads should roll! Fire bomb the greedy c**nts!
look here mr books you should stop all this gossip and slander about all the retailers on the high street, you seem to have a big downer on the high street shops dont you!!!
Charity Shops rely on volunteers to staff and run their shops, so their wage coasts are minimal. I believe that they may also be exempt from business rates, although I am not 100% certain about this.
They also rely on donations for much of their stock, so their overheads are pretty minimal. An annual rent of £27,500 only equates to a weekly turnover of around £530, not exactly a king's ransom, so in the context of charity shops at least, these levels of rent are not too bad.
However, for normal businesses, with staff to pay, stock to buy, business rates, utility bills etc. we're talking a completely different ballgame. Now ask yourselves why there are so few independent shops left on the High Street?
The Childrens Trust had an income of £971,000 for the year to march 2010 at a cost of £864,000. I dont know how many shops this was for but they now have 17 so this would represent a profit of £7,000 per shop and that would not pay for one part-timer.
Anon. where did you get hold of that info about there finances? Is it in the public domain??
I was puzzled why a Tadworth charity should be in Tonbridge so found their website www.thechildrenstrust.org. Download their 2010 report and the accounts are there.
This charity seems to be a worthwhile cause but like simmilar schools it charges the L.E.A's for its services. The charges are not listed but another local special school charges £45,000 pa for a residential place.
Surely information regarding charities and their financial affairs should be in the public domain, especially when they're getting various tax-breaks from the Inland Revenue, and exemption from business rates.
No-one doubts the good work they do, but let's not be under any illusions, charities are big business these days.
yes all charities should be made to be transparent some more so than others especially any linked to children how about starting with Common Purpose has anyone heard of them ?
If you want to look at the annual report for a charity (such as cp) just go to the www.charity-commission.gov.uk web site and enter the charity name or the charity reg number. From the accounts you can see how much the top staff are being paid.
On charities: Yes you are right it seems you can go to that web site and find out quite a bit about individual charities. Costs, revenue, salaries etc. Without naming names I'm surprised to see that a number of top executives at some of them are earning over £80,000 a year and in a significant number of cases, over £100,000. Is that fair enough? Should they be doing it on a voluntary basis or do the charities need to pay market rates to attract the right calibre of people? I'm not sure on this one and it's always a thorny topic. You don't want to appear, well, uncharitable but, on the other hand, something sticks in one's throat....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11712881
Some charity fraud could go unpunished as budget is cut
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