The Buchanan Trust Charity

CHARITY COMMISSION
[1932 document]

In the matter of the Charity called the BUCHANAN TRUST, found by Indenture dated 24th September 1918; and
In the Matter of “The Charitable Trusts Acts, 1853 to 1925.”

The Board of Charity Commissioners for England and Wales,
upon an application made to them on 6th January 1932, in writing under the Official Seal of
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES;
the Trustee of the above-mentioned Charity:

And after due notice of the intention to make this Order published according
to the direction of the Board by advertisement in the newspapers called “The
Times” and “The Daily Telegraph” on the 6th April 1932 (being more than one
calendar month before the date hereof):

And having received no notice of any objection to the proposed Order or suggestion for the variation thereof:

Do herby Order as follows:—
The subjoined Scheme is approved and established.

S C H E M E.

1. If on the occasion of the letting of any of the land belonging to the above-mentioned Charity no tenent, who is, in the opinion of the Trustee of the Charity, qualified as provided by the above-mentioned Indenture of 24th September 1918 and suitable, can be found, the Trustee may let the land to any applicant who has served in any of His Majesty’s Naval or Military or Air Forces, and, if no such applicant, who is in the opinion of the Trustee suitable, can be found, to any other suitable man who is in need of such assistance as the Charity can provide.

2. The Trustee may set apart and let in allotments in the manner prescribed by and subject to the provisions of the Allotments Extension Act, 1882, any portion of the land belonging to the Charity other than buildings and appurtenences of buildings.

The said Indenture of the 24th September 1918 shall henceforth have effect as if it had been modified so far as is necessary to give effect to the provisions hereinbefore contained.

Sealed by Order of the Board this 31st day of May 1932.

CHARITY COMMISSION
[1972 document]

In the matter of the Charity called the Buchanan Trust, found by conveyance dated 24th September 1918 and comprised in a Scheme of the Charity Commissioners of the 31st May 1932; and in the matter of the Charities Act, 1960.

THE CHARITY COMMISSIONERS FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
HEREBY ORDER that the following Scheme be approved and
established:-

S C H E M E.

1. The above-mentioned Charity and the property therof specified in the schedule hereto and all other the property (if any) of the Charity shall be administered and managed by the County Council of Herefordshire who shall be the Trustee of the Charity.

2. The land specified in the said schedule is hereby vested in the Trustee for all the estate and interest therein belonging to or held in trust for the Charity.

S C H E D U L E.

Land containing 676 acres or thereabouts situate in the Parish of Bosbury in the County of Hereford with the buildings thereon being the land registered under the Land Registration Acts, 1925 to 1966, under Title No. P31543, now let to various tenants at yearly rents amounting together to £5,307.75.

£1,511.80 cash on the Suspense Account of the ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

This schedule is made up to the 16th November 1971.

Notes. — (1) Part of the above-mentioned land is subject to a perpetual yearly rentcharge of £37.64 created and reserved by a deed of enfranchisement made the 15th May 1918 between The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England of the first part the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries of the second part and Robert Buchanan of the third part.

(2) Further part of the said land is subject to a perpetual yearly rentcharge of £45 created and reserved by a deed of enfranchisement made the 6th April 1922 between The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England of the first part the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of the second part and Jeanie Rae Buchanan and another of the third part.

(3) The sum of £33,359 is owing to the Trustee of the Charity to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food being the amount outstanding on an unsecured loan.

Sealed by Order of the Commissioners this 8th day of February 1972.

CHARITY COMMISSION
[2012 document]

The Charity Commission CY-PRES: the Law and how it can be applied; its relevance to the Buchanan Trust

The Charity Commission has the power to alter the purpose of a charity by Scheme where ther is no other suitable power of amendment in law or in the charit’s governing document.
Section 13(1) of the Charities Act 1993 as amended by the Section 15 of the 2006 Act sets out the circumstances in which the purposes of a charitable gift can be altered so that it may be applied cy-pres.

[Cy-prés is not explained so here goes. The cy-prés doctrine (pronounced see-pray) is a French term meaning ‘as near as possible’. It allows a court to amend the terms of a charitable trust as closely as possible to the original intention of the testator or settlor to prevent the trust from failing. The Charity Commission for England and Wales has the statutory power to apply the cy-près doctrine on behalf of a charity.]

1. Brief Review of original purpose and application of Cy-Pres.

The original purpose of the Charity was to settle and provide employment for soldiers and sailors from the Great War. The original purpose having been arguably fulfilled saw the introduction of the 1932 Scheme which broadened the beneficiaries to include all ex-service men generally and recognised the difficult agricultural times and broadened further the beneficial group to include such other men as may be in need of relief which the Charity could offer.

This Scheme saw the departure from arguably the true spirit of the gift which was to assist ex service men and this has caused and continues to cause issues in relation to the appointment of beneficiaries and the treatment of non service tenants on the Estate.

Arguably the current purposes are

1. Outdated in respect of the definition of people ie restricted to service men section 13(1)(d)
2. No longer provide a suitable and effective method of using property available (having regards to the appropriate circumstances) Section 13 (1) (e) (iii)

There is clearly a beneficial class in need of relief which the charity can offer without having to broaden the base of the beneficial class which occurred in 1932.

As can however be seen from the report below the social and economic circumstances have changed and the current purposes do not provide a suitable and effective method of using the property available.

The Charity can achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in the administration of the Charity as can be seen below by a different method of applying the Charity’s property. Arguably there is an in balance between the assets available to the Charity and the number of beneficiaries being offered relief.

There will need to be evidence produced to the Commission as to the true spirit of the gift and whether the driving force behind the gift was the need to support returning soldiers sailors and now airmen from armed conflicts and that need to provide assistance in relation to employment, therapy etc. is still as relevant as it was at the time of the original gift all be it that the method of delivery of the benefit has changed.

2. A brief history of farming in the light of the original gift.

Pre- the Great War (WW1), farming had been in a long depression since the 1860s/70s due to the importing of grain and then chilled meat, which resulted in farming producing minimal returns.
During WW1, due to lack of imports, prices rose steeply and farming prospered.
After WW1, imports started again and by the 1930s returns to farmers were so low that many tenants walked out of their farms with nothing, consequently the broadening of the tenancy base for the Trust in 1932.
During WW2, farming again flourished and after the war subsidies were introduced to ensure that as much food as possible was produced in Britain to cut down the dependency on imports.
Secure tenancies were introduced under the 1948 Agricultural Holdings Act to encourage tenants to plan and invest in the future.
Many ex-Servicemen went into farming in the period after 1918 but, due to lack of experience and knowledge as well as falling prices, the majority failed and left the farms with nothing. Farms were amalgamated and let to whoever would take them, some remained vacant. Many of the farms were very small by today’s standard, being between 10 and 30ac. (The majority of the County farm/smallholding estates were put together between 1918 and the mid-1920s).
With the coming of mechanisation from the 1940s to today, the average farm has increased in size so that only a small minority of commercial farms are 100ac or less, the majority of those being Council farms/smallholdings.
The Buchanan Trust was set up to help returning Servicemen make a living from the land; however, by 1932 the number of applicants had fallen so low that it was necessary for the Trustee, at that time MAFF, to agree wuith the Charity Commission to broaden the base of beneficiary to include anyone who was in neeed of charitable assistance and wanted to farm to be eligible to apply for a farm on the Estate.
In 1972, MAFF handed over the Trustee’s role, with the agreement of the Charity Commission, to Herefordshire County Council - which became Hereford and Worcester County Council in 1974 and returned to Herefordshire Council in 1998.
In 1972 when the Trust was passed to Herefordshire it was in a very poor financial position and run down. Various properties were sold off to pay the borrowings and as farms were amalgamated. Due to the necessity of enlarging the farms to make them economic, properties that required heavy capital investment or were expensive to maintain were sold to raise capital for improvements and modernisation with the intention of investing the surplus in more agricultural land in the vicinity of the Estate. Some land, approx. 90ac, was purchased at Fromes Hill but was later re-sold because of the distance and access problems. As a result of these sales the Trust has approx. £800k of liquid assets invested by the Trustee.
The Trustee has five councillors, who are appointed by the Leader of the Council; and four officers - a solicitor, an accountant, a property operations manager and a land agent, who are appointed by the Trustee to administer the Estate.

3. To summarise the position.

The agricultural and social conditions today are totally different from when the Trust was set up in 1919. The number of people working in agriculture has fallen to a small function [fraction?] of the numbers in the 1920s, and farming is on a totally different scale with large sums required to be able to stock a farm. A 100ac farm will need an investment of approx. £100k to fully stock it and run it before any income starts to come in. The question therefore arises is whether or not a person who has such a sum is in need of “relief from poverty” or in need of “charitable assistance”.

Further to a meeting with Mr. G. Divers of the Charity Commission, the future of the Estate, the purposes for which it should be managed, the narrow base of beneficiaries - there being only 9 at present and only 3 of these ex-Service - and how the number of beneficiaries can be expanded are all in need of discussion.

[The Trustee produced a consultation document on ‘Improving Public Benefit and Governance’ and followed up with a ‘Progress and Proposals’ document in June 2013. The consultation period expired on 18th July 2014.]

Source: Website http://www.buchanan-trust.co.uk/ accessed on 1st August 2014.