18 MAY 2007

COMMONWEALTH INSTITUTE SELLS KENSINGTON SITE 

The Commonwealth Institute announced today that it has sold its Kensington property to Addison Developments Limited a company wholly owned by the owner of the freehold interest, the Ilchester Estate.

Christopher Kolade, High Commissioner for Nigeria said: “I have been involved in this process as a Trustee for the past five years and I am delighted that we have an outcome that provides for a sustainable future for the work of the Trust. It is a particularly welcome outcome as support for the education of Commonwealth children is so critical to the future welfare of us all”.

The Institute has been working for more than a year with Addison Developments and Foster and Partners on plans that incorporate its own leasehold interest with parts of the Ilchester Estate’s freehold. The scheme retains the Grade II* listed Exhibition Hall.

This arrangement with Addison Developments permitted the Institute to exit when the work had reached the point at which, on a risk weighted basis, the value of its leasehold interest had been optimised. This recognises the benefit of the work carried out and the observations on the proposals for development of the site by English Heritage and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Addison Developments will now progress the commercial development of the site through its own structures and partnership arrangements.

The Institute in developing the plan for the site has respected the desire by the UK Government that the Exhibition Hall should remain as a feature of the site. This represents a very significant transfer of value away from Commonwealth Children for whose benefit the Trust exists.

The Charity Commission has acknowledged that the Trustees of the Commonwealth Institute have taken all measures necessary to satisfy themselves that the sale is in the interests of the Charity.

For further information please contact:
Commonwealth Institute      Tel 020 7024 9822

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NOTE FOR EDITORS

The Commonwealth Institute

The CI Trust and its purpose

• The Commonwealth Institute is a Trust that originated from the donations of private citizens from across the then Empire of which all 53 countries now form the modern Commonwealth. Its Trustees are six Commonwealth High Commissioners, the Commonwealth Secretary General, and four ‘lay’ Trustees one of whom acts as the Chairman.
• The Trust’s purpose is education, specifically the promotion of primary and secondary education and teacher training across the commonwealth. This focus for the Trusts activities was endorsed by the UK Government in 2002 and Commonwealth Ministers of Education and Heads of Government in 2003.
• The Trust’s recent initiatives include:
• The Centre for Commonwealth Education, a joint venture with Cambridge University. Currently research is being undertaken in Ghana, India, Kenya and Pakistan.
• The LOOK project, a longitudinal study being undertaken in Australia assessing a method of incorporating physical activity into primary school education and examining its impact on health and academic performance.

The Kensington Property

• The Kensington High Street property was provided to the Trust as compensation in 1958/62 when the UK Government acquired and then demolished the Trust’s original award-winning building in order to expand Imperial College.  As Part of that compensation the UK Government had an obligation to maintain the building.  This obligation was removed by Act of Parliament in 2003.
• The building was Listed Grade II* in 1988. This was reaffirmed in 2005. The listing has the effect of substantially reducing the value of the property to the Trust.
• From 1962 to 2002 the Trust was obliged to make the property available for various activities carried out in the building, principally under the control of and funded by the UK Government under the Imperial Institute Act 1925.
• In 2002 the Act was repealed and full discretion over the use of the building reverted to the Trust.
• The building was unable to sustain the educational purposes of the Trust. In conformity with Charity Law the Trustees have been seeking since 2002 to realise the value in the site in order to fund its core purpose.
• The Commonwealth Governments have stated, through their High Commissioners in London, that the building is not symbolic of the Commonwealth.
• In July 2006 the Trustees announced that they were working with Foster and Partners on plans to develop the building which would be the subject of Listed Building Consent and Planning applications.
• A significant proportion of the funds realised will have to be devoted to meeting costs inherited from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2000;  but a substantial sum will remain to provide a platform for the long term continuation of the Trust’s educational work.

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