Looking Ahead

Looking Ahead

We were clear last year that our sector faced serious headwinds for a variety of reasons, which, however robust our position might be, will inevitably impose a burden on our charitable expenditure. We had already demonstrated our willingness to make strategic interventions using our reserves with our £7m plus grant to help set up the new Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Stanford Hall. Now we have taken further steps to adjust our operations to meet the new challenges.

To help guarantee our ability to meet our ongoing commitments without having to liquidate devalued assets, we took advantage of the government’s VAT deferral scheme and have also borrowed £2m through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). We further released additional capital to guarantee our operations until at least the next financial year. In summary, during FY 19-20 we released some of our free reserves and this financial year we sold a further £4m from our investments –avoiding the period of much-reduced capital values during this spring. Our board is clear that our reserves exist to safeguard our operations in time of crisis, like now, but equally we need to preserve our long-term ability to act as the Army’s ‘strategic reserve’ for benevolence.

As we rebalance our own operations, we continue to play a key role in encouraging the wider sector to further collaborate and consolidate. We are clear that the current exceptional circumstances provide opportunities as well as risks. With the financial pressures that have been brought to bear by the current crisis, our sector will face some consolidation and we are key stakeholders in work underway to shape that change rather than merely be subject to it.