Letter: Charities working hard for their money - and supporting the Exchequer

Sir: Chris Blackhurst writes that people "will have felt their blood boil" upon reading that the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association has "handed out interest-free loans to staff". The facts are that we sometimes take a secured stake in an employee's new home when we need him or her to move from our centre in, say, Bolton to the centre in London, where house prices are much higher. Our staff are highly specialist and we cannot recruit them from elsewhere, so vacancies must be filled from inside. Without the right staff in the right place at the right time, the work of our 15 training centres would grind to a halt.

ALISON RADEVSKY

PR and Marketing Manager

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

Reading, Berkshire