The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has cut its free reserves by almost a quarter, as the sale of its former headquarters is set to be completed at the end of January.
According to its recently filed accounts for the year ending March 2022, RNIB’s free reserves fell by almost £10m to £30.6m after investing in a long-leasehold for its new head office.
RNIB accepted an offer for its current central London head office, valued at £21.6m, in 2021.
AshbyCapital and Montrose Land agreed to buy the Judd Street property, where RNIB has been based for more than 20 years, for an undisclosed sum in 2021.
The charity is downsizing by moving into the Grimaldi Building on Pentonville Road at Kings Cross, which is now its registered address with the Charity Commission. Staff is due to move into the Grimaldi Building in February or March.
“Free reserves of £30.6m (2021: £40.2m), is below target minimum, mainly due to investment in a new London premise ahead of a major capital receipt from the sale of the current head office,” the charity's accounts read.
Income down for the fourth year running
RNIB saw its total income fall for the fourth year running, according to its accounts.
A decrease of £2.7m on the year prior, RNIB put the reduction down to “discontinued operations” that included the transfer of regulatory services.
The charity’s total income has steadily declined in the last four years. In 2018 its total sat at £118.7m.
Donations decreased by £200,000 to £19.2m this financial year due to a decline in individual giving and the cessation of Covid-19 furlough grants.
Spent £240,000 on redundancies for 37 staff
The charity’s accounts state that £240,000 (£0.24m) was spent on the termination of employment to 37 members of staff. This included compensation payments of £0.08m made to six employees.
These payments were based on service, the financial review explains.
However, costs of emoluments were down on the previous year by over 31%.
RNIB’s 2022 accounts read: “These costs have been incurred as part of a programme of work to implement our strategy and ensure we have the right people with the right skills to effectively meet the needs of our customers.”
There were also 198 fewer average monthly employees than in 2021. Salary costs fell accordingly by 2.4% to £36.5m.
Diversity and inclusion
In the financial year ending 2022, RNIB grew its accessibility, diversity and inclusion team and launched new diversity and inclusion sight loss awareness courses for its staff.
The latter was created by its blind and partially sighted colleagues.
The percentage of staff that disclosed they have a disability has slightly declined in the last year, by 0.2%, it reports.
However, the amount of employees with a disability in leadership positions has increased by 0.2% to 14.1%.
By March 2022, RNIB reported that 55.8% of its staff have no disability – an increase of 0.9% since September 2021.
Meanwhile, 3.9% preferred not to say, 13.2% did not provide an answer and 27.2% said they have a disability.
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