The Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry into Edmund Kell Unitarian Church and Elizabeth Kell Community Hall in central Southampton over financial and governance concerns.

The church describes itself as a ‘compassionate, inclusive, spiritually diverse, faith community’, and the hall is used for various community events.

The regulator first started communicating with the charity in April 2025 after receiving an application from its trustees to change the charity’s structure. During this process, the regulator identified concerns around the charity’s governance and administration. 

As a result, the Commission conducted a review of the charity’s accounts and obtained information on its investment portfolio. ‘This raised concerns that funds initially estimated as in the region of £290,000 may be unaccounted for,’ the regulator said.

As a result, the initial review has now been escalated to an inquiry which will investigate how these funds were used and whether there were ‘potentially unmanaged risks relating to a connected individual’. 

The regulator will also investigate the ‘extent to which the trustees have exercised adequate control and oversight over the charity’s financial management, including whether there has been any loss or misappropriation of the charity’s funds’. 

The Church is an ‘excepted charity’ which means it is not listed on the register of charities and does not have to file accounts with the Charity Commission. However, it does have to comply with all current charity law, trustee and governance rules.

A charity is only supposed to be ‘excepted’ if its income is £100,000 or less, and this exception legislation, introduced in 1996, is being repealed in 2031.

Also based at the Church’s address in Southampton was the People’s Pride Soton CIC (community interest company), incorporated and registered at Companies House in June 2023, then dissolved in July 2024.