Disability charity Scope incurred a deficit of £3m over the past year, pushing its level of free reserves below its target of £7m, according to its latest set of accounts.

The accounts show that overall income was £101m, down on £102.6m the previous year.

The deficit was due in part to the charity's controversial policy of care home closures, the accounts said.

The charity announced plans to close 11 of its 35 care homes in January last year – affecting 190 disabled residents and around 400 staff. The decision was one then-chief executive Richard Hawkes insisted was implemented to help modernise the public perception of disability.

The executive summary Scope’s 2015 annual report, points the charity’s deficit to “reduced service income, the  challenging commissioning environment and care home closures”.

But the charity also broke organisational records for fundraising income and retail, earning the highest surplus for a decade, according to the report for the year ending 31 March 2015.

The charity said it recruited over 40,000 new regular donors and raised more than £20m for the year – for the first time ever, according to the report. The figure, which includes £1.5m grant funds, was £2m more than the previous year.

A statement by the charity’s chair Andrew McDonald said he “acknowledged the impact of significantly lower income from services”.

“Consequently, we finished the year with a bigger deficit than we planned,” he said.

“As we move into 2015/16 we have to be clear that continued success against our strategy must be built on solid, sustainable finances and a clear, robust strategy.”

But McDonald said he was clear that the next few years offered a “unique and exciting opportunity to bring about lasting change for disabled people”.