The Derventio Housing Trust Community Interest Company (CIC) “cash machine” continues for another year whilst those in the positions of power and influence in Derby City Council and Derby Homes, turn a blind eye.

Derventio provides supported housing for vulnerable and homeless people and 100% of their income is public money from Housing Benefits, largely paid by Derby City Council

The headlines from Derventio’s latest set of accounts (y/e 31 March 2025):

• The salary of the Managing Director, Sarah Hernandez, has increased by 47% from £100k pa to £147kpa
• The number of people now being paid £60k+ per annum has increased from 7 to 9.
• The number of properties that they employ within Derventio has remained largely static; increased marginally by 4 from 695 to 699 (0.5%)
• The number of staff being paid less than £60k has stayed the same at 62. Total salary bill (exc high salaries) has increased by 12% ( staff have actually been paid an increase of just ~2%)
• Finances:
  • Income increased by 15%
  • Gross profit increased by 20%
  • The bank balance increased by 16% to £1.4m.

As Derventio is a Community Interest Company (CIC) it is supposed to re-invest surpluses to benefit its stakeholders (the residents). It does not have a profit motive nor a need to satisfy shareholders.

Derby News has written many articles on how Derventio exploits its “exempt” status to make a large surplus and pay excessive salaries to the senior management team.

List of previous Derventio articles

For the first time this year an additional £80k has been paid for “professional services from the Directors”. The Directors being:

• Zoe Atkinson
• Sue Holmes (ex-Director of Disability Direct)
• Sarah Hernandez (ex-Director of Disability Direct, ex-partner of David Moss)
• David Moss (Trustee/Director of Disability Direct until 1 Oct 2025; Husband of Disability Direct CEO, Louise Moss)

“Charity washing”?: What connects Derventio Housing Trust with Disability Direct.

Homes2Opportunities Ltd (H20)

Derventio’s latest accounts confirmed that it:

“…procured goods and services amounting to £2,329,182 (2024: £1,957,977) from a company in which certain key management personnel hold a shareholding interest”

The “company” is Homes2Opportunities Ltd, and the “key management personnel” is Sarah Hernandez. She resigned from being the sole director of H2O following the Derby News article raising this conflict of interest. Since October 2021, Hernandez’s “partner”, Matthew Fletcher, was installed as the sole Director to give the impression of independence.

Comment

The simple questions from the accounts are:

• How can the income increase by 15% and gross profit by 20%, in one year, when there are no additional properties nor staff. Since 2022, the staff numbers have remained constant yet the income, and gross profit has increased by ~45%.
• What is the justification for such excessive pay increases for the senior team – all from public finances.
• Why is so much money being “transferred” to a separate private company under the sole ownership of Sarah Hernandez. A company with one customer, Derventio, with which it has common resources.

Reports suggest that Derventio’s income is being boosted by excessive increases in service charges, not covered by housing benefit, and that residents are being charged for a variety of unexplained additional costs. These are being added to the resident’s rental account, which often goes unpaid ( as the resident is only on Universal Credit) and are either being written off, or paid, by Derby City Council (DCC) or the resident is being pursued through the DCC debt collection process.

The net effect of this is additional income for Derventio from the very stakeholders that they should be supporting.

The question to be asked of Derby Ciy Council:

• How have you auditted the Housing Benefit claims that confirms that the people being housed need enhanced support, and are actually receiving the claimed level of support beyond a “sheep dip” visit/ phone call. And therefore have complied with the Department of Work and Pensions Guidance document “Housing Benefit guidance for supported housing claims”

As a CIC, Derventio Housing should be trading for the benefit of the stakeholders not for the benefit of the Directors, senior managers and friends. The vulnerable homeless people are, in effect, the “machine” for generating cash from the public purse to provide a lifestyle for Sarah Hernandez, and her family, friends and trusted colleagues.

H20 is a scam for extracting cash out of the regulated Derventio CIC environment into a small, standard, private limited company which can avoid providing any meaningful detail.

H20 declared in its accounts that it paid £62k in Corporation tax which implies profit before tax of ~£300k. The retained profit in the balance sheet for the last financial year was £17k which suggests that a dividend of £283k was paid to the sole shareholder...Sarah Hernandez.

A few years ago, Derby News asked a direct question of the, then, Derby City Council Cabinet Member responsible for Housing – “why don’t you investigate Derventio?”. The response was clear. The person did not deny that there was an issue. It was to the point and enlightening “They solve a problem for us!”.

3 years ago Derby News called on Derby City Council to “investigate” – by not taking any action millions of pounds of public money has been squandered. Time now to formally investigate!?