Southampton Forward

Registered charity 1139269 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as SOUTHAMPTON 2025 TRUST, SOUTHAMPTON CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT TRUST

Southampton Forward is an independent charity working across culture, tourism and festival and events. Our role is to build capacity and enhance networks between the city's cultural organisations, create opportunities for cultural engagement for people throughout Southampton and to enable culture to be a catalyst for Southampton's creative placemaking.

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

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted reserves stood at £1,327,511, which is above the target level of £200,000 budgeted for March 2026. The charity reported a net movement in funds of £5,928, supported by total incoming resources of £1,392,027. The trustees confirmed the group is a going concern with adequate resources to continue operational existence for the foreseeable future.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Hopper Williams & Bell Limited. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 07344461

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Laura Read — Chair of Trustees (source)
• Councillor Alexander Winning — Trustee (source)
• Michael Ockwell — Trustee (source)
• Catherine Barnes — Trustee (source)
• Sharon Lloyd — Trustee (source)
• Hayden Collins — Trustee (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.

• BARNES, Catherine Jane, Professor — director, appointed 23/10/2025on trustee list
• LITTLEMORE, Susan Jane — director, appointed 24/10/2024on trustee list
• OBUBA, Stephen Yaw Ofori — director, appointed 18/04/2024on trustee list
• LLOYD, Sharon Dawn-Marie — director, appointed 21/02/2024on trustee list
• ASH, Peta Joyce — director, appointed 21/02/2024on trustee list
• COLLINS, Hayden Sean — director, appointed 21/02/2024on trustee list
• FIELKER, Lorna Eileen Lydia, Cllr — director, appointed 21/02/2024on trustee list
• TAYLOR, Peter Aston Burleigh — director, appointed 14/12/2023on trustee list
• READ, Laura Kathryn — director, appointed 12/01/2022on trustee list
• KEEPING, Timothy James — director, appointed 01/09/2018on trustee list

Official officers record.

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

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~6.9 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 (87% 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: 0.2% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Laura Kathryn Readchair
• Catherine Barnes
• Hayden Collins
• Lorna Eileen Lydia Fielker
• Peta Joyce Ash · trustee of 1 other charity
• Peter Aston Burleigh Taylor
• Sharon Dawn-Marie Lloyd
• Stephen Yaw Ofori Obuba
• Susan Jane Littlemore
• Timothy James Keeping · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: Hampshire · Southampton City

Income and spending

Common questions

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 SOUTHAMPTON SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND.

• SOUTHAMPTON SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND income £205k
• Southampton Hospitals Charity income £11.2m
• SOUTHAMPTON CITY AND REGION ACTION TO COMBAT HARDSHIP income £1.7m
• SOUTHAMPTON CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU income £1.7m
• UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON STUDENTS' UNION income £7.6m
• FORWARD ARTS FOUNDATION income £394k

Side by side with its peers

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