Our progress at Margate Creative Land Trust begins to accelerate as we reach an important milestone for a new charity. We have submitted our first period’s accounts, which were audited, and we are pleased to say that they have a clean and unmodified audit report issued from our auditors, highlighting both our financial statements accuracy and the charity’s transparency.

It has taken time to get the Trust up and running, we want to do things properly and build a foundation for good decision making over the longer term. Accepting grant funding requires rigorous processes in place which need to be developed prior to any significant expense. We have a board of committed and experienced trustees and our executive team have started in post these past few months, which enables us to move more quickly.

The Trust now has a grant agreement signed with Thanet District Council which will enable us to draw down the funds allocated through the Town Deal Board’s commitment in Margate. In order to get the charity established we needed to request some start-up funding, but the bulk of the grant still sits with Thanet District Council who will release further tranches as we identify a need for spend.

The full funding from Thanet District Council has been accrued in the financial statements for the period ended 31 March 2023, as the grant income meets the criteria to be recognised in the financial statements. A grant such as this, without conditions, should not be deferred even if the resources are received in advance of the expenditure on the activity funded by them. As such, the full total grant amount of some £6.7m, is recognised in full in the financial statements during the period ended 31 March 2023.  Therefore, the financial statements for this period required an audit.

We see the next drawdown as being a request for capital to make our first acquisition. We are shortlisting from a longer list of sites and properties and exploring feasibility in order to be able to make considered financial offers.

We work to ensure delivery of affordable workspace to the creative sector in Margate, as well as undertaking further engagement to understand the additional support needs of creative practitioners and businesses. This engagement work will build on the findings of our survey which will also be made available on our website soon.

For those interested, our accounts filing can be found here