Liverpool Community Advice enters into voluntary liquidation

A Liverpool-based registered charity which helps 15,000 people a year across the city with advice, has entered into voluntary liquidation.

Jason Greenhalgh and Paul Stanley of Begbies Traynor were appointed as Joint Liquidators of Liverpool Community Advice (LCA) Limited on January 9, 2023, after its trustees had explored all options to keep the charity open but had to make nine people redundant and release several volunteers.

The organisation, based on Dale Street, traces its roots back to 1939 when the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) opened its doors in Liverpool. In 2016 it evolved into the LCA as an independent entity.

With an ethos on being exclusively focused on the needs of the people of Liverpool, the organisation was funded by a combination of support from local and central governments, executing contracts for organisations, public and private donations, bequests and grant awards from benevolent organisations.

The organisation provided advice on housing, debt, benefits, immigration energy bills as well as mental health.

Trustees say a lack of funding led to its closure, despite it dealing with almost 15,000 enquiries according to its latest published annual report.

Jason Greenhalgh, partner at Begbies Traynor, said: “It’s the worst time of year for an organisation like this to be forced to close its doors but the trustees explored every option to remain open.

“It is a challenging time for anyone running organisations reliant on donations and grants. A combination of reduced funding, inflation and issues in recovering from the pandemic have resulted in these circumstances.”

Gerald Rivett, chair of the LCA, said: “Like many organisations in the charity sector, we suffered greatly from the impact of the pandemic during and after lockdown. We worked hard to get more help but we just couldn’t get the financial support we needed to maintain our services.

“In our view, there is no substitute for personal face-to-face advice. Our dedicated staff performed heroics during the pandemic for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

“Whilst we are now not able to service any new cases, we are doing our best to help existing clients and where possible they will be referred to other nominated organisations. I’m very proud of all the work we have done in this great city and we’d like to thank everyone who has supported us since we launched in 2016.”