We are aware of continued commentary surrounding John Lyon’s Charity and our stance on leasehold reform. We want to take this opportunity to clarify a few key points and address some of the criticisms directed at our work.
First and foremost, we are a grant-making charity committed to improving the lives of children and young people (CYP) across nine London boroughs. Each year, our funding supports grassroots organisations delivering vital services to thousands of CYP. Yes, we do measure and understand the impact of our grant-making. This is not only a core part of our work but essential to ensuring our funding is genuinely making a difference.
Each year:
The Charity funds over 400 active grants, supporting a wide range of programmes including youth clubs, emotional wellbeing programmes, inclusive arts activities, supplementary schools and more.
At least 250 organisations are currently in grant with JLC, reaching approx. 160,000 CYP.
We support around 1,300 grassroots organisations through our locally-established Young People Foundations (YPFs) – now the second-largest funders of youth services in many boroughs, after JLC itself.
We fund £500,000 annually in holiday programmes to ensure disadvantaged children have access to food, enrichment, and play during school breaks.
Through our Cultural Capital Fund, nearly 80,000 children (representing 25% of the local youth population) have engaged with arts and creativity post-pandemic.
We responded swiftly to crises including leading the sector-wide Grenfell Tower and COVID-19 responses, resulting in over £40 million in collaborative CYP funding distributed across London.
Our £22 million Recovery Strategy, launched in 2020, continues to address pandemic-linked inequalities affecting the most vulnerable children and young people.
Without our continued ability to fund this work, real gaps will emerge and in many cases, local authorities no longer have the capacity to step in.
Our approach is highly strategic and every grant is made with long-term sustainability in mind, supporting organisations that deliver transformational work for children and young people in North and West London. Currently, we distribute between £12 to £15 million per year in grants. This level of funding has been achieved through a clear five-year strategic plan that focuses on longer, larger grants, as well as a carefully planned six-year COVID recovery strategy, which saw us take an additional £22 million out of our endowment to augment our annual spend, to protect vital community organisations and the children they serve during an exceptionally difficult period.
That additional level of funding is now coming to an end. Even before this legislation, we were preparing for our annual grant-making to return to around £12 million – a challenge in itself given the growing need. If the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act passes without exemption for our charity, we anticipate that our grant-making will drop to around £10 million per year, a significant drop from the current £15million.
We are not a fundraising organisation and never have been. Our ability to continue our work depends entirely on the careful management of our endowment, including the historic property assets left to the Charity to fund our mission. Maximising these assets is key to ensuring we can maintain and grow our grant-making in the face of increasing need.
The £1.37 million figure recently mentioned is a conservative estimate. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 will impact both the value of our estate, which is essential to our total return investment model, and the income we receive from lease extension premiums. This creates a double financial impact – reducing both our capital base and our annual income, and ultimately means we will have less to invest in the communities and young people we serve.
It is also important to acknowledge the wider consequences. This isn’t just about lost grants, it risks lost jobs in the charity and community sector, lost services for children, and lost progress for communities that already face inequality.
And while £10 million may sound like a substantial amount of funding, the reality is that we are already unable to meet the growing demand. With other funders reducing or reshaping their own grant-making programmes, we are seeing a surge in applications to John Lyon’s Charity. Simply put, more organisations are turning to us – and with fewer resources, every pound we give becomes even more critical.
Once again, we are in support of leasehold reform and agree with the need to make the system fairer. However, our legal challenge is focused on securing a narrow exemption that relates specifically to our properties in St John’s Wood – not to block reform altogether.
There have been claims that no charities should be exempt, but we cannot and should not be lumped into the same category as wealthy second-home owners or commercial investors. Our charitable work benefits thousands of children and young people every year, just as the work of organisations like the Crown Estate, the National Trust, and the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall – all of whom currently have exemptions – benefits the public in other ways. We are not a rich organisation operating out of greed. We are a charity built over 34 years, trusted by communities, and committed to protecting essential grassroots services across North and West London.
We respect those who hold a different view, including leaseholder campaigners, and have never sought to discredit their position. All we ask is that our position is also treated with the same respect.
