About the Addington Fund
The Addington Fund provides homes for farming families needing to leave the industry and emergency grants in times of hardship.
The Fund was set up as the Churches’ response to Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), when it distributed grants totalling £10.3 million to over 22,000 applicants. Now in its 10th year, the Fund continues to support viable farming families experiencing financial hardship due to circumstances affecting the business which are completely out of their control. The Fund’s Trustees’ Discretionary Fund (TDF) distributes grants of up to £2,000. In recent years the charity set up a fodder bank in the disastrous floods of 2007, and assisted the many businesses affected by the demise of Dairy Farmers of Britain. It has also helped where animal disease restrictions have a negative effect on the business and in times of personal tragedy.
The Charity also run a Strategic Rural Housing Scheme (SRHS) providing homes for families needing to exit or retire from the industry with no other option available to them. To date the Scheme has supported 209 families, and currently owns 41 houses nationally.
Sir Don Curry launched the Strategic Rural Housing Scheme in 2002. It addresses the situation where farmers have to leave the business and, in doing so, lose their home. In many cases there is no suitable housing available locally. For most the days of the final farm sale financing the purchase of a house in the village have long gone. Affordable rented housing can be difficult to find, particularly in rural areas.
In developing this housing initiative the Fund has moved from a grant giving activity that could have ceased overnight, to the long-term responsibility of properties and, even more crucially, people. It is therefore essential the Fund is sustainable. Rental income from properties is sufficient to cover the basic administration of the Fund and the costs of the property portfolio. This allows all donations to be invested in further properties, adding to the asset base of the charity. When a property is no longer required, it will be sold and the money available for another purchase. Thus every donation received will have a real and lasting effect.
In addition The Trevorva Barns project in Cornwall provides affordable housing specifically for those who work in, or are retiring from, land-based employment.
The Addington Fund is one of the Farming Help charities