A support charity has announced it is to close due to financial challenges after supporting communities in East Anglia for the last 40 years.

Gatehouse – Caring in East Anglia will close all its services by the end of August and is now working to ensure support, including its food bank and Christmas project, continue under other organisations.

Four members of staff will be made redundant and its site will be put up for sale.

The trustees’ say the decision to close follows “a sustained period of falling income and rising costs that has left the organisation without a viable financial path forward”.

“This has been an incredibly difficult decision; one we did not take lightly, and have done so with great sadness,” said a charity spokesperson, who added it “has been facing serious financial pressures for a number of years”.

The charity said that its financial challenges “reflect a pattern seen across the voluntary sector nationwide”, amid falling donations and grant funding.

The spokesperson said: “At the same time, the costs of running services have risen sharply, driven by inflation.

“Cost-cutting measures were introduced in an attempt to stabilise the position, but were not sufficient to reverse the trend.”

Other services the charity provides to communities include a furniture reuse project, a social supermarket, a free community café and wellbeing activities.

Furniture reuse project's income hit

Historically its Gatehouse Homestore furniture reuse project has been its main source of income but this had been hit in recent years by a shift in “public habits towards online resale platforms”, said the charity.

“When that income started to fall, we felt it across everything we do,” said the spokesperson.

“We are not alone in facing this. We know of other charities in Suffolk and beyond who are dealing with exactly the same pressures - but that does not make it any easier.”

Gatehouse has confirmed that it has no creditors and has sufficient funds to meet all its liabilities, including staffing costs, through to closure.

It supports around 3,500 people a year across East Anglia and had marked its 40th anniversary in April.

The spokesman added “Gatehouse has served this community for 40 years and the work it has done, the lives it has touched, the people it has supported - represents something genuinely special.”

According to the charities register Gatehouse’s income has fallen from £367,400 in the 12 months to March 2021 to £292,650 over the same period to March 2025.

Over this time its spending has exceeded its income over the last two years by more than £100,000.

---