RETAIL TRUST

Registered charity 1090136 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q7316598 · Wikipedia · 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.

Objects

3.1 THE CHARITY SHALL OPERATE FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT IN PURSUANCE OF THE FOLLOWING CHARITABLE OBJECTS: 3.1.1 TO SUPPORT INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE OR HAVE BEEN IN EMPLOYMENT WITHIN THE RETAIL AND ASSOCIATED SECTORS IN NEED BECAUSE OF YOUTH, AGE, ILL-HEALTH, FINANCIAL HARDSHIP OR OTHER DISADVANTAGE, IN PARTICULAR BY: 3.1.1.1 THE PROVISION OF WELLBEING SERVICES, FOR EXAMPLE COUNSELLING, COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY AND CRITICAL INCIDENT SUPPORT; 3.1.1.2 THE PROVISION OF ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE, PARTICULARLY TO INDIVIDUALS WHO WOULD OTHERWISE BE UNABLE TO OBTAIN SUCH ADVICE; 3.1.1.3 THE PROVISION OF SPECIALLY DESIGNED OR ADAPTED HOUSING AND ITEMS, SERVICES AND FACILITIES CALCULATED TO RELIEVE THE NEEDS OF BENEFICIARIES; AND 3.1.1.4 THE PROVISION OF GRANTS, ITEMS AND SERVICES TO INDIVIDUALS IN NEED AND/OR CHARITIES, OR OTHER ORGANISATIONS WORKING TO PREVENT OR RELIEVE FINANCIAL HARDSHIP OR DISTRESS; 3.1.2 TO ADVANCE AWARENESS AND UNDERSTANDING, SOCIAL INCLUSION AND MOBILITY OF INDIVIDUALS, IN THE RETAIL AND ASSOCIATED SECTORS BY PROVIDING FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE THROUGH EDUCATIONAL GRANTS AND BURSARIES, ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE AND ORGANISING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP THEIR SKILLS, CAPACITIES AND CAPABILITIES TO ENABLE THEM TO GAIN EMPLOYMENT IN THE RETAIL SECTOR; AND 3.1.3 TO FURTHER SUCH OTHER PURPOSES WHICH MAY BE CHARITABLE ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF ENGLAND AND WALES AND THE LAW OF SCOTLAND IN CONNECTION WITH THE RETAIL AND ASSOCIATED SECTORS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AS THE DIRECTORS SEE FIT FROM TIME TO TIME BY THE PROVISION OF FINANCIAL AND OTHER SUPPORT.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

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

Accounts audited by HaysMac LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Homes England. This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 30/04/2022 (received 11/04/2023, 42 days after the 28/02/2023 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Corporate structure

• Trading subsidiary: RETAIL TRUST EVENTS LIMITED Companies House 03253828
• Registered company of the charity Companies House 04254201
• Trading subsidiary: COTTAGE HOMES CONTRACTS LIMITED Companies House 09127894 · Financial health read from its filings
• Trading subsidiary: RT WELLBEING SERVICES LTD Companies House 09958483 · Financial health read from its filings

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)

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 (3.7%) (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.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Alistair McGeorgechair
• Alison Porter
• Bruce Tara Findlay
• Erin Brookes
• Gita North
• IRENE VIVIENNE KING · trustee of 1 other charity
• John Anthony Houghton
• John Matthew Birch · trustee of 1 other charity
• Lesley Margaret Exley
• Nathan John Peacey · trustee of 2 other charities
• Paul Armstrong
• Paul Christopher Allen · trustee of 1 other charity
• Richard Alfred Hulme
• Tracey Clements

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

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

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.

• MONEY ADVICE TRUST income £19.9m
• CHARITIES TRUST income £74.4m
• HELPING DISABILITIES TRUST income £131k
• BOOKTRUST income £12.4m
• THE DRINKS TRUST income £1.0m
• MULTI-RACIAL TRUST income £38k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.