RETAIL TRUST
Registered charity 1090136 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE COTTAGE HOMES CHARITY · also registered in Scotland as SC039684 (OSCR)
Retail Trust is the charity for all people working and retired from retail. Its charitable activities are:- a confidential Helpline which provides counselling, legal and debt advice- Charitable Services with access to financial grants;- Wellbeing Programme;- Supported Living and Care Services for retired employees; and- other services such as education.
Causes: Education/training · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Accommodation/housing · Other Charitable Purposes · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that total income increased by 13.1% to £12.3m, while costs rose by only 0.12%, resulting in a reduced net deficit of £1.25m compared to £2.70m in the prior year. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves decreased to £33.66m, with cash at bank falling to £1.71m, though the trustees remain confident in the organization's ability to continue as a going concern.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Reserves policy: 3 to 6 months of fixed operating costs (held: £33.7m)
“an appropriate level of reserves has been established so as to enable the Trust to continue its charitable activities and this is set at 3 to 6 months of fixed operating costs.”
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Accounts audited by HaysMac LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.
Corporate structure
RETAIL TRUST EVENTS LIMITED — per its own Companies House accounts
- Turnover: £602k
- Profit before tax: £50k
- Amounts owed to parent undertaking 522,130
RT WELLBEING SERVICES LTD — per its own Companies House accounts
- Turnover: £3.7m
- Profit before tax: £-655k
- Amounts owed to parent undertaking: £3,157,350
COTTAGE HOMES CONTRACTS LIMITED — per its own Companies House accounts
- Turnover: £48.4m
- Profit before tax: £24.8m
- Debtors include £707,547 owed by the parent undertaking (Retail Trust). Creditors include £44,745 owed to the parent undertaking.
Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Retail Trust (matched by registered charity number).
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- Chris Brook-Carter — Chief Executive (source)
Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.
Company officers (Companies House)
Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.
- PEACEY, Nathan John — director, appointed 23/06/2026on trustee list
- BIRCH, John Matthew — director, appointed 25/11/2025on trustee list
- CLEMENTS, Tracey — director, appointed 25/11/2025on trustee list
- HOUGHTON, John Anthony — director, appointed 25/09/2025on trustee list
- PORTER, Alison Rachel — director, appointed 01/03/2024on trustee list
- FINDLAY, Bruce Tara — director, appointed 23/01/2024on trustee list
- ALLEN, Paul Christopher — director, appointed 28/11/2023on trustee list
- ARMSTRONG, Paul Richard — director, appointed 08/12/2021on trustee list
- BROOKES, Erin Aileen — director, appointed 03/02/2021on trustee list
- POWELL, Christopher Lewis — director, appointed 16/12/2020on trustee list
- EXLEY, Lesley Margaret — director, appointed 01/05/2019on trustee list
- MCGEORGE, Alistair Kenneth — director, appointed 01/12/2018on trustee list
- NORTH, Gita — director, appointed 14/06/2018on trustee list
- KAYE, David Stanley — secretary, appointed 14/05/2013
Official officers record.
Property (HM Land Registry)
7 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (3 freehold); recorded price paid £300k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/04/2025)
Cost of raising funds
£1.1m
Reserves (reported)
£37.8m
Reported reserves equal ~33.3 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (64% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.
Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 8.7% of total income — above the median for charities its size (3.8%) (benchmarks).
Register events
- Received assets from another charity (17/07/2023) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
- Received assets from another charity (27/10/2022) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
- Received assets from another charity (27/06/2019) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
- Received assets from another charity (04/10/2013) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Barnet · Derby City · Liverpool City · Salford City · Scotland
Income and spending
Common questions
Is RETAIL TRUST financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that total income increased by 13.1% to £12.3m, while costs rose by only 0.12%, resulting in a reduced net deficit of £1.25m compared to £2.70m in the prior year. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves decreased to £33.66m, with cash at bank falling to £1.71m, though the trustees remain confident in the organization's ability to continue as a going concern. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by HaysMac LLP.
Who funds RETAIL TRUST?
Funders whose own accounts filings name RETAIL TRUST as a grant recipient include THE BEAVERBROOKS CHARITABLE TRUST.
Known funders
Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.
Government & lottery funding
Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).
Funders of similar charities
Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.
Charities like this
Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with MONEY ADVICE TRUST.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.