Page 5 - Land Trust Annual Review 2023

Annual Review 2022

Chairman’s & Chief Executive’s Report
Introduction and Summary

In the financial year 2022/23, we saw a continued rebuilding of our formal
activities as we put the Covid 19 pandemic behind us. We are proud to report
that the social value delivered across Land Trust sites in 2022/23 was on a par,
in real terms, with pre pandemic levels, at an estimated £34m which represents
a 30% increase on 2021/22.
The year was very successful in terms of charitable delivery with increases across
a number of areas including: the number of health activities on our sites, school
visits, training programme participation, community events, volunteering and
charitable activities. More details on this can be found within this report.
William Hiscocks
Chairman
Communities across the country are feeling the impact of the current cost of living
crisis. However, our vision is clear, to improve the social and economic quality of
people’s lives by creating sustainable, high quality green spaces.
We believe access to local green space for the use of all socio demographic
groups and for all ages can offer significant social value, including benefits to both
physical and mental health.

The land we own and manage continues to play an important role in supporting
the physical and mental wellbeing of the communities who live and work around
our sites. Before the pandemic we received circa 1.45m visitors, and this
Alan Carter
Chief Executive increased sharply in the first year of the pandemic to 2.4m visitors due to the strict
lockdown which was in place. In 2022/23 we received 2.1m visitors which was a
9% increase on the previous year.
Financial information and site acquisitions
2022/23 was a successful year for the Land Trust financially with net income
(before losses on investments) of £1.9m and we are pleased to announce our
balance sheet remains in a strong position with net assets as of 31 March 2023 of
£203.3m, of which £3.7m was classified as General Funds. Total investment
income during the year was £6.7m. This income enables us to manage our sites
sustainably and to deliver our charitable outcomes. Costs are tightly controlled by
the Trust as we move increasingly closer to self-sufficiency.
2022/23 was a turbulent year in the financial markets and the value of our
investments reduced by £11.5m, ending the year at £179.9m. This reduction in the
value of our investments should not affect the Trust’s medium and long-term
business model. We will continue to monitor such turbulence in the financial
markets and look to achieve long term growth in the value of our investments over
time.
Despite a challenging economic climate, particularly within the construction
industry, we are delighted to report the Land Trust took on six new sites during the
year 2022/23, including two new service charge sites, which will in turn increase
the delivery of our charitable aims.
To allow us to continue to grow, it is imperative we continue to invest in our own
resources. In 2022/23 we introduced new customer service software to support
our growing number of service charge residents and 2022/23 also saw a 9.3%
increase in colleague numbers.

5