THE future of a historic house in Romsey could be in the balance as its financial future will be discussed by civic chiefs.
Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) will discuss proposals to financially support King John’s House, in Church Street, at cabinet on Wednesday, November 20.
The discussion comes as the museum enters its final year of revenue grant support from the council. This means that financial backing for King John’s House will end on March 31 next year unless further funding is approved.
A report by council officers says that the cabinet has three options. The first is approving the full request within the King John’s House business plan, which includes three years of revenue cost funding, refurbishment costs and ongoing tourist information point costs.
The report states that this would provide complete financial certainty for the house and its trustees, but that it would not encourage the house to become self-sustaining.
Alternatively, the cabinet can approve an initial year’s funding for 2025/26, with any future revenue cost support being agreed on a year-by-year basis until March 2028, with the report marking this as the recommended option, as it encourages the house to become self-sustaining. However, it will not provide the house or trustees with financial certainty.
The final option is ending funding to King John’s House next March. The officers' report says that taking this option would mean that the budget could be reassigned to other tourism activities or be a proposed saving. However, the future of King John’s House would be a risk, and it could close, with Romsey losing a tourism asset.
Cllr John Parker, who is also a chair of trustees for King John’s House, said that the house has been planning to become more self-sustaining for some time, and that he is hoping that the cabinet selects the officer’s recommendation to continue funding for next year and then do annual reviews.
He said: “What we are hoping to is move away from being reliant on funding from the borough council. But we realise that will take some time to achieve, so we are looking for continued support from Test Valley while we make those changes.”
He continued: “I would hope that three options put forward by the officers are the standard approach – you’ve always got to put three options forward. There’s one recommended option and two others just to make up to the three options, so I hope that the recommended option is the one that goes forward.
“Cutting off our funding completely would mean that we would really have to reconsider the whole viability of the charity as for if we could continue operating at all, in which case the house would have to close and I don’t know what would happen at that point.”
The report will be discussed by TVBC’s cabinet on Wednesday.
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