The Merchants House continues to operate and we have just had our usual quarterly committee meetings (all by Zoom).

At our Finance meeting it was accepted that we will suffer a significant decline in income this year but there is a strong desire to continue our good work, particularly in the current climate.

At our Grants Committee meeting we agreed to make a wide range of grants to foodbanks and those helping in a range of areas – some of the grants have to be deferred as they were for a specific purpose which cannot happen under lockdown but it remains our intention to make the payments providing we are assured that these projects will happen.

We will continue to do the good work done by this House over many centuries.