The £4m Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation has welcomed police investigations into historical child sexual abuse involving the former Prime Minister as they are “confident it will clear his name”.
The foundation, established after Heath’s death in 2005, is a registered charity with the Charity Commission and maintains Heath’s former residence Arundells and its contents for the benefit of the public.
According to its latest accounts its net assets amounted to just over £4m, the vast majority of which are the property and its contents. It had an income of £137,497 and expenditure of £177,149.
In January 2006, it was announced that Heath had left his house and contents to the value of £5m to a charitable foundation to conserve his 18th-century house Arundells.
On 3 August, the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced that it would investigate “allegations concerning Wiltshire Police’s handling” of an allegation of historical child sex abuse made in the 1990s.
The IPCC said that a “criminal prosecution was not pursued, when a person threatened to expose that Sir Edward Heath may have been involved in offences concerning children. In addition to this allegation, the IPCC will examine whether Wiltshire Police subsequently took any steps to investigate these claims.
“The allegations were referred to the IPCC by Wiltshire Police following allegations made by a retired senior officer”.
The IPCC statement also features a direct line to trained NSPCC counsellors. The BBC reported that the NSPCC have received “a number of calls” from members of the public, affected in some way by the issue.
On 5 August, it was reported that detectives in not only Wiltshire but also in London, Jersey, Kent and Hampshire are now all investigating separate claims of historical child sexual abuse against Heath, who was Conservative Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974, and others.
In a statement, the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation said: “We welcome the investigation by Wiltshire police, which we wholeheartedly believe will clear Sir Edward’s name and we will co-operate fully with the police in their inquiries.”
A number of Jimmy Savile's victims have pursued claims against the charities which he left his fortune to. After a lenghty legal battle the compensation scheme was given the go-ahead in December 2014.
