Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) on state reopening small grants program for village halls in England.
Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE), on February 27, 2024, announces the reopening of a grant program offering £2,000 to £5,000 for village hall improvements in England.
ACRE aims to promote any charitable purpose to improve the life of village halls in England and Wales.
More specifically, ACRE’s mission is to work with ACRE Network members and other key stakeholders to provide evidence and address needs, inform and influence at a national level, and speak up as the voice of village halls across England.
ACRE’s beneficiaries are at the heart of all its work, specifically, all people living in rural areas of England, especially those at risk of isolation and disadvantage, for whom rurality brings additional challenges and costs to their daily lives. ACRE regularly reviews its strategic priorities, aims, and objectives as part of the business planning cycle.
During the year, the Board finalised ACRE’s medium-term business plan following an iterative engagement with members and stakeholders. The resultant plan now reflects new priorities, outcomes, and ambitions for ACRE based on feedback from stakeholders and an in-depth analysis of needs and the organisation’s wider operating environment. This new business plan and the associated annual delivery plans will carry the organisation forward for the next few years. They will be reviewed on an ongoing basis as part of the organisation’s evaluation plan.
While reviewing the aims and objectives and planning future activities, the directors have referenced the Charity Commission’s general instruction on public benefit. In line with the Charity Guidance, the directors are satisfied that ACRE continues to deliver considerable public benefit through the support it provides to the 38 Network members by pursuing the following objectives and critical activities.
ACRE’s core aim is to promote a healthy, informed, vibrant, and sustainable village halls sector that is well-equipped to address local needs while influencing and benefiting from policies and initiatives at the national, sub-national, and regional levels. Underpinning this objective is ACRE’s, and the ACRE Network’s, commitment to:-
- Improve the lives of people living and working in rural communities;
- Help and encourage community-led action and solid community governance;
- Increase the prolonged sustainability of local community life;
- Affects policies and services to help address the market failures associated with rurality. And to our shared principles that together we will:-
- Act as a champion and facilitator for sustainable rural communities
- Use community development principles to empower people to understand and address the issues they and their communities face.
The financial statements are prepared using the Statement of Recommended Practice:
- Incoming resources are introduced once the charity has an entitlement to them; the resources will undoubtedly be received, and the monetary value of the incoming resources can be measured with sufficient reliability.
- Resources expended—liabilities are recognised as resources expended as soon as a legal or constructive obligation commits the charity to the expenditure. All expenses are accounted for accurately and classified under headings that accumulate all money belonging to sets.
We conducted our audit using International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further mentioned in the Auditor’s responsibilities for auditing the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity by the ethical requirements related to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, indulging the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have completed our other ethical responsibilities by these requirements. We believe the audit proof we have gained is enough and suitable to offer a basis for our decision.
ACRE is a national charity program that reopens to support rural communities. We are as concentrated as we have always been on improving the future of rural communities in a rapidly changing world.
