Government Grants

[Steve Clark]

Our climbing club has two decent huts in the Lakes. We let them out alternately each weekend to an external block booking.  This is the bulk of our income for the year and pays for all our overheads. Keeps our member subs & overnight hut rate low. Typically, we build up a pot of money over a number of years and then spend it on a building fabric improvement once a decade or so (porch extension, new insulated roof etc.)

This last year our income has effectively reduced to zero. We still have some major overheads (insurance, heating to prevent mould, septic tank empty, some emergency tree surgery for safety) and this rapidly eats into the pot saved up over a number of years.

We've received a grant and this has allowed us to go ahead with re-wiring & plastering that we had previously planned, instead of cancelling the work to keep an essential reserve for X more months.

It seemed an odd situation, we did think about it carefully and we left it until the vaccine was clearly on the available path, before we risked using some of the pot. The money was spent with a local business, 20% directly back to gov.uk in VAT and the upgrades had long term energy efficiency in mind. Plus, we are doing the work when the hut is shut so no (further) losses later when it could potentially be open for booking.

 

[mikem]

50 weekends (Friday & Saturday night) at ?5 per night for 30 cavers = ?15,000 - it soon adds up.

Water is often a fixed cost, heating is kept at a minimum level, but there's usually a standing charge for electric & gas.

 

[alastairgott]

Ooh if we could have those days tomorrow (30 of them in the hut) I would snap them up again, give me freshers flu from serving soup to students anyday or students egging each other on to eat whole raw eggs and if that doesn't work for one of them, cook it and try and eat it again shells included.

 

[pwhole]

And I could be sat in the garden avoiding them all and not getting flu. Them was happy daze

 

[Pitlamp]

50 weekends (Friday & Saturday night) at ?5 per night for 30 cavers = ?15,000 - it soon adds up.

Water is often a fixed cost, heating is kept at a minimum level, but there's usually a standing charge for electric & gas.

. . . and often broadband, these day. And annual services of fire alarms, boilers and all the other stuff to continue regulatory compliance / avoid letting insurers wriggle out of responsibilities. And routine maintenance to protect the asset (such as painting etc). The list goes on.