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CENTRE FOR CITIES

Registered charity 1119841 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

To promote education for the public benefit in issues of economics and public policy in relation to cities and towns in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world and to promote for the public benefit research in the aforementioned fields and to publish the useful results of such research.

Causes: Education/training · website · Get email alerts

Latest income
£1.6m
Latest spending
£1.7m
Registered
2007
Accounts read
FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a deficit of £80,850 for the year ended 31 December 2025, resulting in a decrease in unrestricted funds to £986,133. The trustees confirm that the charity holds reserves equivalent to at least six months of operating costs and has secured core funding from the Gatsby Foundation for the period 2026 to 2028, supporting the going concern basis.

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

What the accounts disclose

Highest-paid employee band: £120,001+ — above the 90th percentile for charities its size (median £70k)
“Employees earning above £120,001 1” — page 26
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Reserves policy: at least six months of the operating costs (held: £986k)
“The Centre for Cities' reserves are defined as unrestricted net current assets, and they are set to the equivalent of at least six months of the operating costs.” — page 7
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.
Related-party transaction: One trustee currently also serves on the Board of the Gatsby Foundation.
“In the current year, one trustee currently also serves on the Board of the Gatsby Foundation. None of our trustees receives remuneration or other benefits from the charity.” — page 10
Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Chariot House Limited. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

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.

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

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

Total income
£1.6m
Total spending
£1.7m
Reserves (reported)
£974k
Employees
19

Reported reserves equal ~7.0 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (69% 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: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

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

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

Income and spending

Financial year endIncomeSpending
31/12/2025£1.6m£1.7m
31/12/2024£1.9m£1.8m
31/12/2023£1.9m£1.7m
31/12/2022£1.8m£2.0m
31/12/2021£1.7m£1.7m

Common questions

Is CENTRE FOR CITIES financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity reported a deficit of £80,850 for the year ended 31 December 2025, resulting in a decrease in unrestricted funds to £986,133. The trustees confirm that the charity holds reserves equivalent to at least six months of operating costs and has secured core funding from the Gatsby Foundation for the period 2026 to 2028, supporting the going concern basis. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Chariot House Limited.

What does the highest-paid employee of CENTRE FOR CITIES earn?

Per its FY2025 accounts, the highest-paid employee was in the £120,001+ band.

Who funds CENTRE FOR CITIES?

Funders whose own accounts filings name CENTRE FOR CITIES as a grant recipient include THE GATSBY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION.

Shared trustees with funders

Register facts shown side by side: a person serves as trustee of both this charity and a funder whose accounts record grants to it. Shared trusteeship is lawful and common; well-run charities manage it through declared-interest procedures.

Known funders

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

FunderYearAmountPurpose (as stated by the funder)
THE GATSBY CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONFY2024£1.3mTowards core costs.
THE GATSBY CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONFY2025£1.1mTowards core costs.
THE GATSBY CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONFY2022£1.1mTowards core costs.
THE GATSBY CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONFY2023£1.1mTowards core costs.

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.

FunderSimilar charities fundedAmount to them
THE BRITISH ACADEMY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HISTORICAL PHILOSOPHICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES2£3.5m
ALTAJIR TRUST1£35k
INTERNATIONAL ALERT1£19k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE CENTRE FOR GLOBAL STUDIES.

Side by side with its peers

CharityIncomeTop pay bandStaff >£60kReserves vs policyFundraising costGoing concern
CENTRE FOR CITIES£1.6m£120,001+—unclear—no doubt
THE CENTRE FOR GLOBAL STUDIES FY2025£95k—0below—noted
THE CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC POLICY RESEARCH FY2023£7.5m——unclear—no doubt
MA CENTRE UK FY2025£249k—0unclear—no doubt
VOLUNTARY SECTOR CENTRES FY2025£1.7m—0above—no doubt
CENTRE FOR ENABLING EA LEARNING & RESEARCH FY2024£284k—0above—no doubt

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