The Charity Commission has an active compliance case into My Space Housing Solutions, the charity which featured in a BBC Panorama investigation last night.
The programme uncovered property sales worth more than £120m linked to developer Paul O'Rourke and My Space Housing Solutions, a charity he helped set up. It claimed the charity was used to help inflate the price of properties.
The charity’s total income rose to more than £26m in the the financial year ending 31 October 2020 – an increase of more than £20m since 2016 – according to the regulator’s data.
One property deal involving the developer and the charity saw the purchase and then lease of 10 flats in East Yorkshire.
Property company Enabling Homes, owned by O'Rourke, bought the block for £800,000 and on the same day the deal was finalised, 10 flats were sold to an investment company for nearly £1.6m.
The BBC said this price leap was a by-product of Enabling Homes' relationship with the housing charity, as after the purchase was completed, the charity signed a 20-year lease for the flats.
The charity supports vulnerable adults, so this deal meant the new owners could benefit from guaranteed income provided by housing benefits and other support mechanisms.
The BBC said evidence uncovered by Panorama suggested that companies linked to O'Rourke have bought and then sold more than 100 properties that ended up being leased by the charity.
It also found 47 charity tenants died in a two-year period from June 2018, a time when the number of tenants on the charity's books was rising steeply.
A spokesperson for My Space Housing Solutions said: “It is distressing that My Space was part of last night’s (Mon 15 Aug) BBC Panorama programme into the lease-based housing model. We are currently actively reviewing all aspects of our compliance and governance.
“We acknowledge that in the past we have made mistakes in our governance and we are currently looking at all of our governance procedures and reviewing and strengthening our board structure.
“We continue to work closely with Charities Commission and remain under their scrutiny and interrogation.”
A Commission spokesperson said: “We have an active regulatory compliance case into My Space Housing Solutions. The Commission continues to engage with the charity’s trustees and other regulators.”
The regulator opened the case in early July, and it has been engaging with the Regulatory of Social Housing on this matter.
Editor's Note: This piece has been updated with additional information on when the case was initially opened and with comment from a spokesperson for My Space Housing Solutions.
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