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HONOURARY TREASURER’S REPORT
ST GEORGE’S CHURCH
FINANCIAL YEAR 2024
Before I make comments on the Accounts I would like to thank those other people who play an active and important part in managing the finance of this church. A very loyal, but small group of people meet on a Monday morning to open planned giving envelopes, reconcile loose cash, record monies against income categories and take these monies to the bank. I know that this group works diligently and unseen but make my task that much easier. I would like to thank the Planned Giving team who keep the records on planned giving and deal with all the Inland Revenue returns. Others I would like to mention are Father John ,William Burgess the Honorary Auditor whose support and help is much appreciated and Churchwardens Brian McNally and Michael Nicholson for their support.
Overall Surplus/Deficit
Payments exceed Receipts by £11164 Gross Receipts £116203 and Gross Payments £127367
General fund receipts £90615 and General fund payments £99057
Restricted fund receipts £25588 and Restricted fund payments £28310
Receipts:
Our principal receipts were
Planned Giving £49458
Wedding/funeral fees £11199
Tax refund £11233
Grants /VAT Refunds £12224
I also think it is worth noting we received an anonymous donation of £5000 for repairs to the Organ , £1919 interest on our Deposit fund , £1725 from concert fees ,£2175 fron Fayres and £1210 from coffee donations.
Payments:
Our principal payments were
Parish share £48000
Church Insurance £12387
General Maintenance £15895
Gas £7050
Organ repairs £8606
Our contributions towards charities has continued. Half of the collections raised from weddings, baptisms and funerals is given to a charity nominated by the families. £854 was donated with the money going to 15 different charities.
Parish Share
In 2024 we achieved our Parish share pledge of £48000.
We have had to reduce our pledge to £30000 for 2025.
HMRC
In early 2020 HMRC made an overpayment to us of £9321. They have offset this against the tax refund they owe us for 2020 and 2021. They also owed us a refund for 2022. This money was paid in 2024. However the tax refund they owe us for 2023 had still not been paid at the end of 2024.
Energy Bills
The Gas contract ended in October 2024. The new contract reflects the new prices for energy and are significantly more than the old contract.
End of Year Balances and Reserves
At year end the General fund cash balance was £14877 This equates to about 7 weeks normal general expenditure. To put that in context the diocese recommends we should have reserves of 3- 6 months.
At year end the balance on all the Restricted funds was £28186.
Over the last 10 years we have incurred expenditure of just under £90,000 on repairs to the Church fabric . This has been financed from various sources such as donations, legacies, grants , VAT refunds . However this income has not covered the expenditure and we have gradually had to run down the reserves in the Church maintenance restricted fund. This fund is now effectively empty. Consequently for the foreseeable future general maintenance of the church fabric will have to be financed from the General fund and will be competing with other demands for money such as Parish share ,Insurance premiums and utility bills.
The Future
Although this report is principally about financial year 2024 I need to make some comments about the future.
The original 2025 Budget forecast a £8200 deficit on the General fund. However since the Budget was set there have been a number of significant changes to the financial situation.
As mentioned above we are still owed money from the HMRC for 2023 and will be due more for 2024. It is not clear when this money will be paid.
We have had extra unforeseen expenditure on the maintenance of the Boilers and the knock on effect of this means this years Gas bill will be significantly over budget.
We have also had extra unforeseen expenditures on the church fabric. As noted above this has now to be financed from the General fund.
All these factors means the deficit on the General fund this year is likely to be significantly more than originally forecast. We have therefore decided to reduce the monthly direct debit payment of Parish share. If this monthly reduction continues for the rest of 2025 the Parish share we actually pay this year would be £12400 not £30000 - a considerable reduction . The financial situation will be monitored in the coming months .
Whatever Parish share we pay in 2025 - unless the finances improve dramatically - the Parish share we can pledge in 2026 will be significantly less than £30,000.
Basically expenditure is rising faster than income and we cannot continue running down the reserves. We need to increase regular ,recurring income if we are to pledge the Parish share we would like to.
We plan to put in a bid to the National Heritage Lottery fund to finance repairs and upgrades to both the church and the church hall. However even if this bid is successful such monies are unlikely to be made available in the near future.
I would like to express my thanks to everyone for their support throughout the year.
A J PINKETT
Treasurer
April 2025