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Charity watchdogs have launched a formal inquiry into the management of a learning disability care home that paid its chair £1m in fees and is just five weeks away from possible closure over a £1.6m unpaid tax bill.
The Charity Commission rapidly upgraded the status of its investigation into allegations of financial mismanagement and poor governance at William Blake House just weeks after opening a lesser regulatory investigation into the charity.
The opening of the inquiry came amid Guardian revelations about the parlous state of William Blake House’s finances and an urgent bid by families to takeover running of the home amid fears their loved ones will be evicted.
The charity, which relies on more than £3m a year of council and NHS funding, is one of a handful of specialist residential homes in England for adults with severe and complex learning disabilities. The residents are mostly non-verbal and require support around the clock.
The families welcomed the commission’s inquiry, and said in a statement: “We feel huge relief that the Charity Commission has now instigated a statutory inquiry. The discovery of such irregularities over the course of the last few months has been so traumatic for us. We can only pray that this is not too late for our loved ones’ homes.”
A formal section 46 inquiry is relatively rare and the most serious form of commission investigation. It is not in itself an indication of wrongdoing but reflects significant concerns over alleged misconduct or mismanagement in the running of a charity.
It is believed the inquiry will examine financial and governance concerns relating to the charity’s tax debts, the late filing of charity accounts, potential conflicts of interest, and potential unauthorised personal benefit.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, whose teenage son John has learning disabilities, told the Guardian he welcomed the inquiry and called on the government to secure the future of its care services. “There clearly needs to be a full investigation into what went so badly wrong and how this went undetected,” he said.
Families first raised the alarm about William Blake House with the authorities last autumn after discovering the tax authorities had applied to wind up the charity over non-payment of staff PAYE and national insurance contributions.
They subsequently discovered the charity’s board had agreed to payments totalling £1m to a company solely owned by its chair, Bushra Hamid, in recent years. Its assets shrank from £920,000 to £200,000 between 2022 and 2024, while its auditors repeatedly formally warned trustees the charity was not a viable business.
William Blake House said it would assist the commission in its inquiry. The Northamptonshire-based charity has said its financial difficulties are due to high agency staff costs and the failure of councils to raise care fees in line with inflation. It plans to settle its tax debts by selling land to a developer.
A Charity Commission spokesperson said: “Our engagement with William Blake House Northants has now been escalated into a statutory inquiry. In line with our usual policy, we will publish a public statement setting out the scope of our inquiry in due course.”
