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Our key figures and financials at a glance
The 2022/23 financial year was the final year of the Transforming Places through Heritage (TPtH) programme in England. As the programme was structured to wind down, the budget was only £2m compared with £4.8m in the previous year, and this was the main factor driving the overall 42% reduction in income compared with 2021/22. In the rest of the UK, we secured and delivered funding for our core programmes in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, at a similar level to the previous year.
We used a broader range of short-term deposits and investments for any cash not immediately required and this, together with the higher interest rates and bond yields, led to a 71% rise in investment income this year. Interest from our disbursed loans, our primary source of unrestricted income, also increased 13% this year. While our managed investment portfolio did realise some gains in 22/23, these were outstripped by unrealised losses in the year; we hope to recoup these losses in the future.
The tapering activity towards the end of the TPtH programme also meant a £2.86m reduction in grant making expenditure, which was the primary reason for the 38% reduction overall in charitable activities expenditure compared with 2021/22. However, within this overall reduction there was increased spend in loan-related areas, due to a net increase in the bad debt provision and £70,000 of pro bono legal fees provided to the AHF in relation to the Heritage Impact Fund, the latter being included under both income and expenditure.
There were also fewer, smaller, HIF loans disbursed this year compared with several high-value HIF loans disbursed in 21/22. Demand, however, remained strong, with just over £2m in HIF loan commitments as at the year-end (compared with £2.8m in 2022). Endowment lending activity was broadly consistent with last year, with year-end commitments of £1.3m (2022: £2.1m).
The difficult economic climate of 2022/23 also impacted our staff, and we took measures to help mitigate the cost-of-living challenges they faced. In the coming year, we will continue to manage our overheads carefully and focus on generating sufficient unrestricted income to support our core costs, which includes several staff who are not funded by external grants.
