Chairman’s Statement
BY a fluke of timing, first consideration of the tone of this report coincided with the news that Britain had entered a double-dip recession, with the Government clearly stating its intention to adhere to its austerity policies of cutbacks and borrowing.
Thankfully, the Fund is not in double-dip territory. Nor during the last year have we been either cutting back or borrowing. Wemay not be as well off as we were a few years ago (who is?), but income in the year was slightly ahead of expectation, though not by enough to generate any degree of complacency or self-satisfaction. For this, wemust thank our contributors, whose continued support in these tough times is so important to our sport.
Without wishing to sound like a politician, the Fund Board intends to stick to its now established approach of setting realistic targets and budgets. This invokes the risk of being accused of being overly pessimistic and then patting ourselves on the back when we ‘over- achieve’. But we continue to believe that erring on the side of caution is better than having to slash expenditure plans when optimismproves to have been unjustified - surpluses can be spent, shortfalls cannot!
Talking of optimism, although reports of difficulties and hardship continue, there is also a view emerging that our sport, if not exactly turning a corner,may at least be approaching one. I even heard the term‘green shoots’ being used recently. The Fund generally steers clear of the politics of the industry, so I willmake no comment other than to observe that any blossomwhichmay eventually emerge will be a delicate one which will demand careful nurturing.
I have always believed that supporting greyhound racing through the Fund is a good business investment in an important betting medium, but I also recognise that bookmakers are just as vulnerable to recession as anyone else and, again, we thank themfor their support as well as congratulating themon their good business sense. The recommended rate of payment is 0.6% of greyhound turnover, which, inmy view, is not toomuch to ask, given the importance of greyhound betting to those who pay - not tomention those who do not.
Income
We started the yearwith a budget agreedwith the Greyhound Board of £6million, plus a commitment to add to this figure if income exceeded this cautious estimate. This iswhat happened, for during the course of the year our income stabilised andwewere able to increase the £6 million figure to £8million, actual income (including interest) being 2% up on the previous year. In fact, overall expenditure for the yearwas £8.3million, a reflection of the Fund’s desire to invest in the sport as soon asmoney becomes available.
As Chairman, Imake no apologies, either personally or on behalf of the Fund Board, for the cautious approach we decided to take. This was designed to protect the sport frompainful cutbacks if turnover, which was unpredictable in the general economic circumstances, had fallen, while enabling us to spendmore it became available. As it transpired, once the trends became clear we had the confidence to spend more than in the previous year and we were happy to do so.
2 Annual Report 2011-2012
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