Volunteers helping homeless urged to register as a charity or risk breaking rules

A HUDDERFIELD-based volunteer group has been told to formally register with the Charity Commission if it intends to continue operating.

The Huddersfield Change Project (HCP) risks contravening charity law if it does not comply.

Set up by self-styled project founder and co-ordinator Dave Kennedy in November 2015, the HCP distributes food and clothing to homeless people in the town.

It has ambitious plans to open a soup kitchen and has raised more than £5,000 towards its £25,000 target via a crowd funding page that has received considerable support.

Further donations have come from local individuals and businesses as well as Huddersfield Soup, based at Kirklees Media Centre, which handed over more than £400 last summer after the HCP made a successful pitch for funding support.

The HCP’s Facebook page describes it as “a team of dedicated volunteers providing help where help is needed to the most vulnerable in our community.”

However, Mr Kennedy and his team are unregulated and their activities, such as giving out hot food, potentially put recipients at risk.

By law, if an individual sets up a charity he or she must apply to register it with the Charity Commission if it is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) or its annual income is more than £5,000, unless it is a specific type of charity that does not have to register. The Commission will take action to secure compliance if it identifies a charity that isn’t registered but should be.

A spokesperson for the Charity Commission said: “The Huddersfield Change Project is not registered with the Charity Commission. Any organisation with exclusively charitable purposes based in England and Wales with an annual income of more than £5,000 is required by law to register with the Charity Commission unless specific exemptions apply.

“We have contacted the organisation to clarify whether it meets the requirements and must submit a charity registration application.”

The Charity Commission generally advises donors to only give to registered charities with a charity number as