A CHARITY which helps disabled people lead independent lives is set to widen its range of services after support from Crutes Law Firm.

At Home in the Community is a social care charity helping people with disabilities remain living independently by offering support services such as housekeeping, companionship, shopping assistance and transportation. The charity also offers residential services in the region.

With the deadline looming on its existing lease, At Home had very little time to find alternative premises. Crutes Law Firm was enlisted to help, managing to negotiate a new commercial property lease and turnaround the paperwork in double-quick time on a new headquarters for within Freeman House, West Road in Newcastle.

The new site is double the size of the charitys former premises and will enable it to create a computer suite for its clients where they will be able to access web-based learning. It will also provide additional space for staff training and development.

Paul Earnshaw, partner in the business services department at Crutes and a specialist in commercial property, said: "I am delighted to see At Home settling into its new base in Newcastle. We had to turn things around very quickly to enable At Home to secure this property so its great to see them finally move in.

"It is critical for charities in particular to ensure they receive good legal advice when signing new leases as they need to ensure their liabilities are minimised. From our side, it is very rewarding to work with clients like At Home and help an organisation which does an enormous amount of good work with the local community."

Chairman of At Home in the Community, Lord Donald Curry, said: "This is a very exciting and dynamic time for the charity as we relocate offices, restructure the business and recruit new employees.

"The new office has a ground floor space which is much more accessible for our clients and it gives us the potential to provide innovative opportunities and services. We will be appointing a Training and Workshop Development Manager in the next month and through this new post we aim to set up a web-based training facility and create distance learning packages for sale within the case sector.

"Thanks to Crutes Law Firm we were able to secure these new premises very quickly and we are very grateful for all their hard work in making this move possible."