Friday brief: Northants charity that owes £1.6m to the tax office appears in high court
Here's our regular end of the week news round up
By Sarah Ward
A South Northants based charity that looks after adults with complex needs owes £1.6m in tax and appeared in the high court this week after being issued with a winding up notice.
William Blake House, which has four care homes in Northamptonshire and looks after 22 adults with severe needs, was given a few months reprieve on Wednesday to get the bill paid, but families of residents have concerns about the future and how the matter has been handled.
The issue was taken up in parliament on Tuesday by South Northants Conservative MP Sarah Bool, who asked the secretary of state for care Stephen Kinnock whether he would meet with her to work out a plan.
She said:
“William Blake House in my constituency, a residential home for those with severe learning difficulties, has been issued with a winding up notice, and the court hearing is actually tomorrow. Now, given that the families had no notice of this and have had no consultation, they are naturally worried about what provisions will be in place for their loved ones. So will the Minister urgently meet with me and discuss putting in place a contingency plan for them?”
The minister said officials would take the issue up as a matter of urgency.
The charity, which has its headquarters in Blakesley near Towcester says it hopes to sell land to pay the tax bill.
A group representing seven families, who do not wish to be named for fear of an impact to their relatives, have spoken to NN Journal and expressed concern that the charity had sold off its assets and now leases the properties. They have no issues with the quality of care their loved ones have received.
They said:
“We are staggered by the institutional failure that potentially involves the Charity Commission, West Northamptonshire Council and the CQC and it is deeply concerning that these issues have only come to light through the efforts of families, rather than through regulatory oversight. It opens up serious questions on the governance of charities caring for vulnerable members of society. This comes down to a failure of the Charity Commission to monitor this charity, a failure of charities and governance law and a failure to the vulnerable who have no voice.”
We asked questions of the charity, and chief executive Jane Other issued the following response:
“William Blake House struggled for the first time in its history during the first ‘austerity years’ (2010-2019) when the local government contracts we have for all our residents were not being automatically increased to sufficiently cover the costs required to support our residents.
“During this time, we encountered a new reality; we were informed by our local authority commissioners in 2016 that owning assets is deemed ‘detrimental’ in fee negotiations as we would be considered ‘asset rich.’“The Board and I, took the decision to offer our existing landlord who owned one of our houses to acquire the other three homes via a sale and leaseback arrangement. This was done at full market value, and it was undeniably beneficial in our dealings with our local authorities who prefer to see care homes as rented and not owned. Moreover, it did not disrupt the harmony and welfare of our residents.”
She said the pandemic further impacted the charity as it became reliant on costly agency staff.
In 2021 the charity informed HMRC of its financial challenges and said it could only pay PAYE when the local authorities had paid an up lift fee, which took 27 months to come in.
She said:
“William Blake House was informed by HMRC that the only mechanism available to dealing with the debt still outstanding, was via a formal petition, which was issued on 18th December 2024. The Board of Trustees and I formulated a plan of action to address the challenge, whereby the freehold land at our Day Care Service (our sole asset) would be used to raise equity via a sale and leaseback arrangement with an experienced developer. The petitioner (HMRC) accepted this plan under the auspices of the High Court of Justice and we have attended each quarterly hearing to demonstrate our progress, such as securing the approval of regulatory parties, the granting of planning permission, easing of restrictive covenants, and approving our financial plan of action.
“The judicial hearing yesterday (January 14) was a further opportunity to prove our progress, and we received a further adjournment to press on and secure the funds to dismiss the petition, by the end of March 2026. Thereafter, this would be our first opportunity to focus on a brighter future.
“Our resident families were updated in a communication in December 2025, that the charity was finding a pathway through this financial challenge and I have received an outpouring of support for the steady and pragmatic steps taken to resolve the financial challenge. The relevant authorities such as the Charity Commission, Care Quality Commission and West Northants Council, have been informed. Naturally, no-one chooses to be in the situation we found ourselves in, but I have equally not chosen to leave or throw in the towel and give up when we have solutions accepted by the judicial hearings.”
The CQC says it has ‘contacted the local authority to seek assurances following the concerns received.’
The Charity Commission spokesperson said:
“We are aware of potential concerns at William Blake House and are assessing information to determine if there is a role for the Commission.”
West Northamptonshire Council, which commissions services from William Blake House and has a responsibility for vulnerable adults, has been contacted for comment.
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News in brief
The leader of North Northamptonshire Council has told NN Journal it will be ‘a matter of days’ before the authority releases a long awaited report into whether Corby has a higher child cancer rate than in other areas.
The council’s director of public health Jane Bethea promised campaigning families she would look into their fears that contaminated land left behind from the steelworks may have caused their child’s cancer.
Following the airing of Netflix drama Toxic Town last year, which was based on the landmark 2009 case in which a group of families proved their child’s birth deformities were caused by harmful toxins in the air produced by a botched clean up operation, more families have raised health concerns.
Cllr Martin Griffiths said the data was ready to be presented to the media, but would be shared with the families first.
The public health team has been analysing hospital data from the past decade to look at whether there is a higher incident.
However it has not so far investigated other health concerns, such as adult cancers, heart defects, birth defects and infant mortality.
Testing of freshwater in November by locals found there were heavy metals present across the town’s three freshwater brooks. There were concentrations of cadmium and nickel in two hotspots linked to the former steelworks.
In response to the testing, which was funded and led by environmental charity Earthwatch, the authority has said it will fully review the findings, but the leader told NN Journal the streams are the responsibility of the Environment Agency.
He said:
“It’s like the public of Corby have almost had enough of it. I get the feeling most people are proud of Corby and they want to move on from it.”
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A Northants Police officer who ran a ‘toxic masculinity’ WhatsApp group named after a violent video game, has been found guilty of gross misconduct.
The officer, who was granted anonymity by chief constable Ivan Balhatchet, was not present at the hearing last Friday and resigned from his job in December. He would have been sacked if he had not quit.
The hearing heard that during the pandemic months between June and December 2020 he was the administrator of the chat group called P90 Test Successful, which is a reference to the Call of Duty video game.
The officer used a number of offensive terms and the group also featured a graphic decapitation video. He told others in the group the chat group was a ‘safe space’.
The chief constable said:
“Collectively, the comments consistently show disrespect to women, minority groups, and persons with disabilities. Other comments use bad language aggressively and demean other members. As indicated above, the group’s behaviour appears to reflect a version of toxic masculinity which is aggressive, boorish, and crude; and the status of group members is reflected by how aggressive, boorish and crude they can be.”
The officer has been placed on the barred list. NN Journal has asked the force why he was granted anonymity by the chief constable.
The chair of trustees from a Northamptonshire based deaf charity that has announced its closure, says it had been losing funds for the past 18 months.
Last Friday Deaf Connect, which has been based in Northampton for 150 years, announced it would have to close after a bid for funding failed.
The charity provides help and support to the county’s deaf community, teaching sign language and providing equipment.
Mark Symmonds told NN Journal that the eight staff had been given notice of redundancy.
He said:
“The funding for organisations such as ours have depleted over the years. Whether that is from the local authority or the grant funding. This is reflective of the current financial climate that we are in.
“We are talking to other organisations and our priority at the moment is to make sure there are services available for our users. It is early days and we don’t know what is going to come down the line.’
North Northamptonshire Council has a contract with the charity on behalf of itself and the West unitary. It says it wants to support the charity.
The local plan for North Northamptonshire will be pushed back because reaching the end of year deadlines for submission is ‘unachievable’.
The timetable for the plan, which will set out the masterplan for housing and development over the next few decades, will be amended in part due to the authority losing a number of staff from the planning department last year.
The government brought in new local plan procedures last year and the executive will likely decide on Tuesday to fall in line with the new schedule. This means the submission of a plan will not happen until the spring of 2028 and the plan not likely for adoption until the end of that year.
The authority’s planning services have been hampered by a lack of staff and delays for many months and it recently launched a transformation programme, appointing a new head of development and planning enforcement this month. Staff have also been brought under one roof, after having worked in different offices according to the footprint of the former borough and district councils. It has started a recruitment drive to appoint experienced planners to its team.
At the executive meeting the leading Reform UK group is also expected to approve creating a new masterplan for Wellingborough town centre.
What an incredible comment from Martin Griffiths. Do the people of Corby really want those investigating and reporting on potentially damaging chemicals in the town to “move on” from it?
The main reason for all these closures seem to be the really bad financial advice provided by either Councillors or senior management in Local authorities. In my years of experience working with Local authorities all over the country, I have found many of the so called experts have very little commercial acumen. Why are charities being told to sell off their Assets and than told to "Lease" them or "Rent" them back? It is an additional cost that they do not need. I doubt that any concept to produce a feasibility study was even suggested. For example Angel Square did belong to the tax payer of Northampton. A building put up at great expense to house Council administrators. Thereafter, to be sold off because of incompetent CEO and bad advices received from Councillors whom have absolutely no financial expertise in that field.