THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS

Registered charity 1113753 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also registered in Scotland as SC039244 (OSCR)

The SPAB was founded in 1877. Today it is the largest, and most technically expert national pressure group fighting to save old buildings from decay, demolition and damage.We run training courses; comment on threats to historic buildings; operate a free technical helpline; conduct research; issue advisory publications and campaign on issues like the need for building maintenance.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity recorded an operating deficit of £1.10m for the year, resulting in a net decrease in total funds. Per the trustees' report, unrestricted reserves stood at £3.99m, with free reserves of approximately £1.93m, which the trustees believe is appropriate given their income sources. The charity relies on investment income and the sale of properties to cover operating deficits and rebuild its investment portfolio.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Crowe U.K. LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Matthew Slocombe — Chief Executive (source)
• Douglas Kent — Director of Advice (source)
• Elaine Byrne — Director of Engagement (source)
• Richard Mullis — Director of Income & Operations (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.

Property (HM Land Registry)

10 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (10 freehold); recorded price paid £60k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~22.0 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (62% 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: 28.0% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (12/11/2020) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Andrew Paul Dalton Walker
• Carole Leith
• Charles Wagner
• Clare Isobel Birks · trustee of 1 other charity
• David McFerran
• Duncan McCallum
• Georgina Ruth Nayler MBE
• Lewis Thomas Hobbs · trustee of 2 other charities
• Louise Bainbridge
• Lucy Emma Newport
• Tyler Lott-Johnson

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

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 SAVE BRITAIN'S HERITAGE.

• SAVE BRITAIN'S HERITAGE income £367k
• SPALDING GENTLEMEN'S SOCIETY income £719k
• THE CORNWALL BUILDINGS PRESERVATION TRUST income £150k
• RICHMONDSHIRE BUILDING PRESERVATION TRUST LTD income £2.2m
• THE GEORGIAN GROUP income £754k
• LONDON HISTORIC BUILDINGS TRUST LTD income £116k

Side by side with its peers

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