Business diary: Going to Town to help children

There are now 16 ‘Early Kick-Off’ breakfast clubs operating in schools across the area serving up to 1,000 free, healthy and nutritious breakfasts every day to ensure the children are fully prepared for their day.

Chairman of Huddersfield Town FC, Dean Hoyle, said: “This is a fantastic landmark for the Town Foundation. The ‘Early Kick-Off’ breakfast club project has gone from strength to strength and has grown far faster than we believed it would.”

Mr Hoyle said that the breakfast clubs were one way of making a difference to children’s lives in the area.

He said: “The Town Foundation was set up to make a difference to the lives of children and young people in our area and this is one of the ways we are achieving that.”

The food for the breakfast clubs has been provided by Total Foodservice.

Mr Hoyle added: “There are countless other organisations and individuals that deserve special praise too, so thank you to everyone who has contributed.”

Total Foodservice managing director, Simon Howarth, said: “We want to give something back to the community. Helping children to start off the day with a healthy meal is very rewarding with many other benefits, not just a satisfying breakfast.”

The 17th ‘Early Kick-Off’ breakfast club is set to be announced by the Town Foundation in early June as the project continues to grow throughout the area.

Trek no treat

Four intrepid members of staff from Skipton Building Society have swapped their desks for the Dales, as they bid to trek 100km across the Yorkshire countryside in just 24 hours and complete the Oxfam Trailtrekker.

Raising money that will help fight poverty across the world, Lee Seymour, Matthew Watson, Gary Aspin and Will Room all work together in Skipton’s Compliance Monitoring team, based at the society’s head office in Skipton.

None of them have attempted the Oxfam Trailtrekker before, but Mr Watson – a keen runner – has previously competed against Mo Farah in the British Trials Cross Country.

“Sadly, I think competing against Mo was easier than this,” said Mr Watson. “We’ve all been training together at weekends and going out trekking in our lunch breaks at work, but to walk 100km with higher climbs than Ben Nevis and Snowdon combined is going to be really tough.”

For the Oxfam Trailtrekker, the team of four need to trek 100km across the Yorkshire Dales in under 30 hours. The Trailtrekker course is a circular route through the Yorkshire Dales. They’ll pass through Malham Cove with its natural limestone pavements, and climb to the top of the famous Fountains Fell – over 650m at the summit.

The perfect gift

Parents acting as “the bank of mum and dad” need to think carefully about how they gift money to their children to fund their first step on to the property ladder, according to a Yorkshire law firm. Lending a helping hand to a child to buy a home is becoming more common with around half of all first-time buyers receiving help from a parent.

However, Kelly Kirby of York-based Langleys Solicitors, says parents must be aware of inheritance tax rules and ensure that all interests are protected to avoid a family dispute.

“There are a number of options but gifting is the easiest way to assist a child; by providing a deposit as a gift for anywhere between 10 and 25 per cent of the cost of the new home,” said Ms Kirby.

“A parent is able to give up to £3,000 a year to a child without attracting inheritance tax. A couple could, therefore, give a child £6,000 in a year.”

A parent can, however, give any amount of money to a child in a year as free of inheritance tax providing the parent does not die within seven years of the gift.