LIVERPOOL ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESAN TRUST

Registered charity 232709 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as ARCHDIOCESE OF LIVERPOOL

To provide support to the clergy in training, ministry and retirementTo support pastoral work in parishes and local communitiesTo support and direct lifelong Christian education in parishes and schoolsTo preserve and invest in the property infrastructure of the Archdiocese and parishes, facilitating worship and enabling the charitable work of the Church to take place

Causes: Religious Activities · website · Get email alerts

Latest income

£38.7m

Latest spending

£44.9m

Registered

1965

Accounts read

FY2024

Financial health, per its FY2024 accounts

The accounts state that the group held total net assets of £218.3 million at the year end, with unrestricted funds of £97.8 million. The trustees report that the level of freely available reserves amounted to approximately 37 months of expenditure, which they consider sufficient to fulfill all obligations. The financial statements were prepared on a going concern basis with no material uncertainties identified by the auditors.

Automated summary of the FY2024 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Largest income source: Collections and donations (30% of income)

“Total income from collections and donations was £11,914K (2023: £10,399K).” — page 46

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Reserves position: below the charity's own stated reserves policy (held: £97.8m)

“The archdiocese held 18 months of freely available reserves at 31 December 2024 (2023: 19 months).”

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Payments to trustees: 10 trustees who were priests received £103,368 in total remuneration.

“The 10 (2023: 10) trustees who were priests received £103,368 (2023: £81,628) in total remuneration during the year.” — page 52

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Salary costs recharged to subsidiary Archdiocesan Parish Centres Management Company Limited.

“The charity recharged salary costs of £117,712 (2023: £87,977) to Archdiocesan Parish Centres Management Company Limited, a subsidiary of the charity. A balance of £482,587 was owed from the company at the year end.” — page 69

“The charity recharged salary costs of £132,811 (2023: £67,061) to Tuneside Limited, a subsidiary of the charity. A balance of £13,444,290 (2023: £2,101,830) was owed from the company at the year end.” — page 69

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Salary costs recharged to subsidiary Tuneside Limited.

“The charity recharged salary costs of £117,712 (2023: £87,977) to Archdiocesan Parish Centres Management Company Limited, a subsidiary of the charity. A balance of £482,587 was owed from the company at the year end.” — page 69

“The charity recharged salary costs of £132,811 (2023: £67,061) to Tuneside Limited, a subsidiary of the charity. A balance of £13,444,290 (2023: £2,101,830) was owed from the company at the year end.” — page 69

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Fuel purchases from Inter-Diocesan Fuel Management Limited.

“The charity recharged salary costs of £117,712 (2023: £87,977) to Archdiocesan Parish Centres Management Company Limited, a subsidiary of the charity. A balance of £482,587 was owed from the company at the year end.” — page 69

“The charity recharged salary costs of £132,811 (2023: £67,061) to Tuneside Limited, a subsidiary of the charity. A balance of £13,444,290 (2023: £2,101,830) was owed from the company at the year end.” — page 69

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Payments to connected charity Catholic Trust for England and Wales.

“The charity recharged salary costs of £117,712 (2023: £87,977) to Archdiocesan Parish Centres Management Company Limited, a subsidiary of the charity. A balance of £482,587 was owed from the company at the year end.” — page 69

“The charity recharged salary costs of £132,811 (2023: £67,061) to Tuneside Limited, a subsidiary of the charity. A balance of £13,444,290 (2023: £2,101,830) was owed from the company at the year end.” — page 69

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Payments to connected charity Liverpool Seafarers Centre.

“The charity recharged salary costs of £117,712 (2023: £87,977) to Archdiocesan Parish Centres Management Company Limited, a subsidiary of the charity. A balance of £482,587 was owed from the company at the year end.” — page 69

“The charity recharged salary costs of £132,811 (2023: £67,061) to Tuneside Limited, a subsidiary of the charity. A balance of £13,444,290 (2023: £2,101,830) was owed from the company at the year end.” — page 69

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Trading subsidiary: Associated Church Clubs Limited, Metropolitan Cathedral Services Limited, Tuneside Limited, Cardinal Heenan Sports Centre Limited, Archdiocesan Parish Centres Management Company Limited, Archdiocesan Property Services Limited

“Various essential functions of the archdiocese are provided through subsidiary organisations. These include the commercial activities of the Metropolitan Cathedral managed by Metropolitan Cathedral Services Limited, and the operation of parish centres by Archdiocesan Parish Centres Management Company Limited.” — page 10

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by HaysMac LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

Corporate structure

Trading subsidiary: TUNESIDE LIMITED Companies House 02316276
Trading subsidiary: ASSOCIATED CHURCH CLUBS LIMITED Companies House 02724031
Trading subsidiary: METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL SERVICES LIMITED Companies House 03115000
Trading subsidiary: ARCHDIOCESAN PARISH CENTRES MANAGEMENT COMPANY LIMITED Companies House 03422332
Trading subsidiary: CARDINAL HEENAN SPORTS CENTRE LIMITED Companies House 03822516

ASSOCIATED CHURCH CLUBS LIMITED — per its own Companies House accounts

The company is a micro-entity and has not been audited, which may imply simplified reporting of intra-group transactions, though no specific intra-group balances are disclosed in the provided text.

TUNESIDE LIMITED — per its own Companies House accounts

Turnover: £16.4m
Profit before tax: £-926k
Debtors include £7,520,967 (2023: £5,557,571) owed by group undertakings.

CARDINAL HEENAN SPORTS CENTRE LIMITED — per its own Companies House accounts

Turnover: £147k
Profit before tax: £-17k
Donated/gift-aided to the charity: £100

“There is a lease held with Liverpool Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Trustees Incorporated, the ultimate controlling party as detailed in note 12, for the site of the sports centre and is charged at £100 per annum.”

ARCHDIOCESAN PARISH CENTRES MANAGEMENT COMPANY LIMITED — per its own Companies House accounts

Turnover: £7.1m
Profit before tax: £-183k
Amounts owed to group undertakings: £1,012,842

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (6,235 followers) · instagram (2,443 followers) · linkedin (1,031 followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2024)

Total income

£38.7m

Total spending

£44.9m

Cost of raising funds

£9.9m

Reserves (reported)

£67.0m

Employees

480

Reported reserves equal ~17.9 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (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: 25.5% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 3.8%) (benchmarks).

Register events

Received assets from another charity (28/03/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
Received assets from another charity (04/01/2017) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
Received assets from another charity (17/12/2015) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
Received assets from another charity (12/11/2012) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

Rev John Francis Sherringtonchair · trustee of 3 other charities
Carol LAWRENCE · trustee of 6 other charities
Colette O'Brien · trustee of 1 other charity
Ian Hollows
REV Provost ANTHONY O'BRIEN · trustee of 2 other charities
Rev Canon Aidan Prescott
Rev Canon Michael Fitzsimons
Rev GERARD JAMES CALLACHER · trustee of 1 other charity
Rev GRAEME MICHAEL DUNNE · trustee of 1 other charity
Rev PHILIP INCH
Rt Rev THOMAS NEYLON
Sean Christopher Keyes · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: Halton · Isle Of Man · Knowsley · Lancashire · Liverpool City · Peru · Sefton · St Helens · Warrington · Wigan

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/12/2024	£38.7m	£44.9m
31/12/2023	£39.5m	£50.7m
31/12/2022	£38.6m	£41.5m
31/12/2021	£35.1m	£36.2m
31/12/2020	£20.4m	£28.0m

Common questions

Is LIVERPOOL ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESAN TRUST financially healthy?

Per its FY2024 accounts: The accounts state that the group held total net assets of £218.3 million at the year end, with unrestricted funds of £97.8 million. The trustees report that the level of freely available reserves amounted to approximately 37 months of expenditure, which they consider sufficient to fulfill all obligations. The financial statements were prepared on a going concern basis with no material uncertainties identified by the auditors. Its FY2024 accounts were audited by HaysMac LLP.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funder	Date	Amount	Purpose
UK government	14/10/2020	£222k	CRF20: Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool
UK government	14/10/2020	£478k	CRF20: Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool
UK government	14/10/2020	£222k	CRF20: Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool
UK government	01/04/2020	£48k	Full Fibre Broadband
UK government	01/04/2020	£14.7m	School Condition Allocation - Voluntary Aided Sector Recipients
UK government	01/04/2020	£1.8m	Devolved Formula Capital - Local Authority & Voluntary Aided Sector Recipients
UK government	01/04/2020	£118k	Priority Schools Building Programme 2
UK government	01/04/2020	£513k	Priority Schools Building Programme 2
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	28/08/2019	£92k	"Metropolitan Perspectives: Sharing heritage, building futures."
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	07/12/2017	£194k	"Urgent Structural & Masonry Repairs to Church Tower"
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	25/05/2017	£10k	"Exhibition to showcase the original competition entries for the Cathedral's design 1959-1960"
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	03/03/2015	£209k	"Liverpool - St Matthew RC Church"
The National Lottery Community Fund	08/09/2005	£93k	To replace the old centre with a brand new updated community facility
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	21/04/2005	£25k	"OLPS Organ restoration and education programme"
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	06/06/2001	£165k	"St Anthony's Church, Liverpool"
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	12/04/1999	£729k	"St Francis Xavier, Everton, Liverpool, Merseyside"

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.

Funder	Similar charities funded	Amount to them
CATHOLIC TRUST FOR ENGLAND AND WALES	2	£305k
SISTERS OF THE CROSS AND PASSION CIO	1	—
CHURCH COMMISSIONERS FOR ENGLAND	1	£123.3m
THE VINEHILL TRUST	1	£4.7m
THE SOUTH LONDON CHURCH FUND AND SOUTHWARK DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE	1	£3.5m
THE CHELMSFORD DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE	1	£2.6m
THE DERBY DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE LIMITED	1	£2.4m
SOUTHWELL AND NOTTINGHAM DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE	1	£1.8m

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with ARCHDIOCESE OF LIVERPOOL.

ARCHDIOCESE OF LIVERPOOL income £38.7m
ARCHDIOCESAN PROPERTY SERVICES LIMITED income £1.2m
THE ARCHBISHOPS' COUNCIL income £234.9m
LEEDS DIOCESAN TRUST income £13.3m
DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE income £12.9m
THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ECCLESALL, SHEFFIELD income £723k

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
LIVERPOOL ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESAN TRUST	£38.7m	—	—	below	—	no doubt
ARCHDIOCESE OF LIVERPOOL FY2024	£38.7m	—	—	below	—	no doubt
ARCHDIOCESAN PROPERTY SERVICES LIMITED FY2024	£1.2m	—	0	above	—	noted
THE ARCHBISHOPS' COUNCIL FY2025	£234.9m	£210,001 - £220,000	—	unclear	—	no doubt
LEEDS DIOCESAN TRUST FY2026	£13.3m	—	—	above	—	no doubt
DIOCESE OF HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE FY2025	£12.9m	—	4	unclear	—	no doubt

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