Hidden In Plain Sight: How Calder Valley Labour received public cash for undeclared building

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST TO GET THE FULL STORY AND COMMENTARY FROM LOCAL GOVERNMENT EXPERT PROFESSOR COLIN COPUS

(photo credit: Folk and Honey)

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Hebden Bridge’s Trades Building is a cherished community icon. For decades it’s been home to the much-loved Trades Club, but recently revealed land-registry documents and newly filed party accounts confirm the building is owned by the Labour Party for the benefit of the Calder Valley Constituency Labour Party (CVCLP). It’s also headquarters of CVCLP and served as campaign headquarters for Josh Fenton-Glynn during his 2024 election campaign.

As reported by the BBC in February, for over two decades that ownership, and the rental income it generates never appeared in the local party’s returns to the Electoral Commission. Only this year on 28 March 2025, after informal queries from the regulator, did the CVCLP hurriedly file accounts for 2023 and 2024 admitting the Trades Building in Hebden Bridge is a Labour-owned asset which they now value at £191,157 generating income of £13,445 in 2023, and £14,262 in 2024.

Photos show returns to the Electoral Commission for 2024 (with rental income) and 2019 (without rental income)

Two months after Labour filed those accounts the Electoral Commission confirmed it had opened a formal investigation into whether the branch breached Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, which requires accurate disclosure of assets and income.

That investigation is ongoing.

Public grants unlocked by a phantom Community Interest Company

But Calderdale Inside Out can now reveal more regulatory woe for the Labour Party.

In August 2021 Hebden Royd Town Council’s Community Funding Committee approved a £10,803 grant for an accessibility project in the Labour-owned Trades Building.

The Hebden Royd Town Council funding committee that waved through the £10,803 grant in 2021 included three Labour councillors. Council minutes record no declarations of interest—despite all three councillors voting to fund a building owned by their own political party.

Under the Localism Act 2011, councillors must declare any financial interest in decisions where they—or their party—may benefit. While political affiliation alone does not automatically trigger a statutory declaration, experts say the approval of public funds for a party-owned building would meet the test for a perceived conflict. No declarations were made.

“We risk being crucified in the press”

Town Council Funding Committee minutes from August 2021 state the applicant was “a constituted voluntary community group with aspirations to gain CIC status; interest has been registered with Companies House.”.

That assurance matters because forming a Community Interest Company (CIC) would have created a legally accountable entity with statutory duties to act in the public interest. It would have provided councillors with a clear governance framework for how the grant would be managed, limiting private or political gain. Without a CIC in place, and with no legal separation from the Labour-controlled Building Management Committee, the safeguards councillors may have assumed existed were never actually established.

And when we checked, Companies House confirmed there is no mechanism to simply lodge an interest to create a CIC. The Community Interest Company promised never materialised, and we’ve seen evidence showing the grant cash was paid into the account of the Building Management Committee, a group made up, according to constitution documents seen by Calderdale Inside Out, entirely from members of Calder Valley Constituency Labour Party which manage the Trades Building on behalf of the Labour Party.

One former councillor and Labour Party member told Calderdale Inside Out that BMC members were warned at the time that “a fully independent organisation should be applying for this grant” and that if it was discovered “we risk being crucified in the press”.

Hollow promises of independence

Calderdale Inside Out has also seen an internal email sent by the BMC to the council clerk relating to the grant application in which assurances were given about how an independent organisation had been created and how funds would be ringfenced.

The email promises that a separate organisation called “Trades Community Space” had been formed and the grant monies would be for the benefit of this organisation.But the email, dated 6 July 2021, also acknowledged that no lease was in place, saying

“In terms of leasing, there currently is not a suitable leasable space for the TCS to occupy. The BMC will enshrine a commitment to offer a lease to the TCS as soon as is practicable.”

The promises continued:

“The BMC is committed