A TRAINING company awarded £41m by a Government funding body waived nearly £900,000 it was owed by troubled social enterprise Create.
Leeds-based Create’s accounts for the period up to the end of January 2012 reveal that Elmfield Training advanced a total of £895,981 to the social enterprise.
They also show, however, that the money owed was subsequently waived by Elmfield and is not repayable.
According to a report compiled by Parliament’s Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Committee, Warrington-based Elmfield received £41m in 2010-11 from the Skills Funding Agency. In the financial year ending 2010 Elmfield also declared pre-tax profits of £12m, says the report.
Elmfield chief executive Ged Syddall told MPs on the BIS committee that those profits were all “Government money”.
Mr Syddall was appointed as a director of Create in February last year.
Create provides work opportunities for former rough sleepers and offenders.
It opened a flagship restaurant in King Street in Leeds in summer 2011 but it closed temporarily in February this year due to what the company called “tough commercial realities”. It has yet to reopen.
The Yorkshire Evening Post revealed on Monday that Create has been receiving thousands of pounds of rate relief from Leeds City Council.
Asked about its support for Create, Elmfield said it had a policy of “reinvesting profits into services that benefit individuals and communities and help to meet broad social needs”.
A spokeswoman went on: “Elmfield has supported financially a number of organisations, including Create, that provide opportunities for disadvantaged unemployed people and young people to get a job and gain the skills required for employment”.
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