Action on Hearing Loss’ sale of its London headquarters has caused its total income to increase by 25 per cent, despite seeing a decline in its legacy income, reveals its recently published annual report.

The building in Featherstone Street, Islington, was sold in March for £11.8m, bringing the charity’s total income up to £47m from £37.4m in the year ending March 2013.

Excluding the sale, which brought in a net gain of £9.2m, the charity’s income increased by £400,000 from 2013. The charity's trustees have designated £8m from the proceeds of the sale to purchase new accommodation in London.

The charity delivered an operating deficit of £2.4m, slightly behind its initial plan for an in-year operating deficit of £2.2m. 

Action on Hearing Loss has seen a growth in its voluntary income of £200,000 to £10.6m, despite a drop in its legacy income of £178,000 to £7.7m. The charity stated that this fall reflects the “prevailing economic challenges”.

The charity's income from charitable activities has remained relatively stable, at £24.5m for the year ending 2014, compared to £24m the previous year.

The charity’s total expenditure for the year also increased to £38.8m, up from £38.3m the previous year. Expenditure on charitable activities was marginally lower in 2014, down from £34.5m in 2013 to £33.8m in 2014.

Primarily due to the sale of its headquarters, Action on Hearing Loss saw its fixed assets decrease from £13.4m as of March 2013, to £9.2m at March 2014.

The charity’s chief executive, Paul Breckell, was the highest paid member of staff, receiving remuneration of £108,308, up from £101,353 the previous year. The average number of employees on a full-time equivalent basis during the year fell from 740 the previous year to 720.

Action on Hearing Loss made a loss of £1.4m on investments and the defined benefit pension scheme, an increase on the £1.2m lost the previous year.

A full actuarial valuation of the pension scheme was carried out on 31 March 2012 and valued the deficit at just over £11m. A payment plan that began in 2009 aims to eliminate the deficit by 2028.

Merger with Deafness Research UK 

On 31 March 2013, Action on Hearing Loss merged with the Hearing Research Trust, known as Deafness Research UK.

In the report’s introduction, the charity’s chair Stephen Hill and chief executive Paul Breckell said: “It’s been a year of significant achievements. We increased the ‘reach’ of our community services across the UK; in particular, we were able to start providing services across all of Wales and Northern Ireland.

“Our services for people who are deaf and have additional support needs went from strength to strength. We continued to offer and develop high-quality, personalised services, to more people in more areas, underpinned by sustainable funding.”

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