CROYDON IN CRISIS: The man behind the closure of one of the Whitgift Foundation’s three large schools will be standing down from the troubled property developers’ governors. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
On his way out: Christopher Houlding has presided over rapid decline in Whitgift Foundation finances
Christopher Houlding is to step down as the chair of the “Court of Governors” at the troubled Whitgift Foundation, a position he has held since March 2015.
That’s according to an official statement provided in response to questioning from Inside Croydon.
Houlding’s decade at the helm has seen the value of the charity’s funds crash by one-fifth, no progress made on the long-promised redevelopment of key asset, the Whitgift Centre, and now the controversial closure one of its three free-paying schools.
The Whitgift Foundation is the Croydon property business which operates three (soon to be two) fee-paying schools, the almshouses and a care home, but which is haemorrhaging tens of millions of pounds a year because of the continuing delays over its £1billion property gamble to redevelop the town centre shopping area.
The Foundation, a registered charity, has just issued its latest financial annual report which confirms that it lost £11.4million of its funds in 2022-2023.
This follows a £19.9 million loss in the charity’s finances in 2022 – meaning that the Foundation’s unrestricted funds have fallen from £252million in 2017 to £197million in 2023, more than 20% in six years on Houlding’s watch.
Under Houlding, the failing Foundation has been without a full-time chief executive since May 2023. It was only last month that the Foundation started recruiting for a replacement in the £200,000-plus salaried job running the property empire of Croydon’s biggest landowners.
Slow process: it took the Whitgift Foundation more than six months to even start to look for a new CEO
Houlding has been leading on the CEO recruitment.
In a glossy brochure pulled together by a firm of headhunters, Houlding has written that, “As the new Chief Executive, you will have the opportunity to shape the Foundation’s long-term strategy as we strive to further increase our social impact in Croydon focussed [sic] on widening access to our schools and ensuring that our care services are best positioned to provide for those in need of them.”
There’s no mention of the financial losses, Westfield or the closure of Old Palace girls’ school in the 19 pages of sun-dappled photos and job descriptions.
But there is a kind of warning for any high-flier who thinks they might have what it takes to turn round the Foundation’s failing juggernaut: “Years of austerity and the changing economic climate have been difficult for Croydon,” the blurb says, “and we carry our sense of responsibility as a key contributor to the community with the gravity it requires.
“We are looking for a leader who will draw upon our rich heritage to help us build the future of the Foundation and the future of Croydon as an important player in the local
community.”
There’s a touch of understatement there, too: the care homes, almshouses and big independent schools, as well as the charity in its George Street offices, employ 850 people, with annual spend of £83million.
But whoever gets offered the Whitgift Foundation hot seat will take over a charity that is in a financial tailspin, is subject to formal complaints to both the Charity Commission and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and which has no real prospect of Westfield delivering on the promised property development for at least a decade.
And while there has been a vacancy for chief executive since at least last November, Houlding and his fellow governors have not displayed any real sense of urgency over finding a replacement. The recruitment ads were posted in June, there won’t be any candidate shortlisting until the end of August, and a final round of job interviews will only be held in the second week of September.
For sale: the £7.5m price tag for Old Palace’s Melville Avenue site in South Croydon seems suspiciously low
For his part, Houlding, an old boy of Trinity School, has been a governor at the Whitgift Foundation, an unpaid but prestigious role, since 2001.
It was Houlding and the governors who last September announced that they were to close the 600-pupil Old Palace girls’ independent school with effect from July 2025 – causing widespread shock and dismay for girls, parents and staff at the £20,000 per year school. Such has been the exodus of pupils from the school in the months that followed Houlding’s announcement that the closure of Old Palace’s pre-school and prep at Melville Avenue was brought forward by a year, to this month, with the Foundation sticking the “For Sale” signs up even before the young girls had finished the summer term.
The £7.5million price tag on the site, comprising 11 buildings set over 4.5 acres, looks low-ball for the scale of the property, suggesting that the Foundation is looking for another school to take on Melville Avenue as an educational establishment, or that the cash-strapped charity are hoping for a quick sale to a property developer.
Many Old Palace parents called for Houlding’s resignation over the decision to close the school, and the complete lack of consultation before the announcement.
Parents have questioned how Houlding has managed to hold on for quite so long: the Foundation is supposed to follow Charity Commission guidance over the length of appointment of governors, and its own documents state: “Save for the ex-officio governors, members of the court are appointed for three-year terms. They can be re-appointed for a further three terms of three years, or longer in exceptional circumstances.”
So that suggests a maximum term of 12 years as a Whitgift governor. No one is absolutely clear what the “exceptional circumstances” might be that have seen Houlding hang on at the Court of Governors for 24 years.
According to a statement issued by a nameless spokesperson for the Whitgift Foundation, “When Mr Houlding was reappointed at the request of governors in 2021, he made it clear this would be his last period of appointment and planned to retire on or before his normal retirement date in March 2025.
“This is still the plan, and the governors will commence a process to appoint a new chair at the appropriate time.”
According to the Whitgift Foundation, it doesn’t have to follow the Charity Commission code on governor appointments.
Above the rules?: the property tycoons at the Whitgift Foundation have ignored Charity Commission code over governor appointments
“Whilst the Foundation is mindful that the Charity Commission endorses the recommended good practice set out in the Charity Governance Code that there should be a limit of nine years on governor or trustee tenure, the Foundation does not have an absolute time limit in its Charity Commission approved Scheme nor in its policies to make this a requirement as some flexibility is thought prudent given the complex and unique nature of John Whitgift Foundation and the need to recruit governors with the appropriate skills.”
The anonymous Foundation governors’ spokesperson offered no indication of when or how this recruitment process might begin.
One Old Palace parent, still angry at the way his daughter’s education has been disrupted by Houlding and the Foundation governors, told Inside Croydon, “That statement reads very much like they operate some kind of Masonic ‘closed shop’, and that they think they are above the rules that apply to other charities.
“Thing is, their record of managing the Foundation shows that really they are not up to the task.”
Read more: Crumbling finances see troubled Foundation lose millions more
Read more: Foundation abandoned new school plan after taking £70m loan
Read more: Old Palace closure brought on by shaky Foundation finances
Read more: Falling rolls and rising fees: how Old Palace got squeezed
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