​RNIB says losses are part of the charity's "financial transformation"

Sight-loss charity RNIB made a loss of more than £12 million last year, new figures show.

The charity’s latest accounts, published by Companies House, show that in the year to 31 March 2017, its total income was £119.2m, with an expenditure of £132.8m.

It made £1m gains on investments, leaving a negative deficit of £12.6m.

The charity said £4.3m of the overall losses related to exceptional costs for the restructuring and reorganisation, with the remaining operational loss of £8.3m for 2016/17 a £1m improvement of £9.3m on the previous year.

In the accounting period, the charity has carried out two significant restructures, including a merger with Action for Blind People which led to 100 people leaving the charity, 70 of them through voluntary redundancy.

The RNIB paid out almost £2.2m in redundancy and termination costs in 2016/17, compared with £1.3m the year before.

A restructure of RNIB Solutions, a department of the charity, in late 2017 also led to 23 staff being made redundant.

The RNIB’s reserves stood at £14.6m, compared with £27.8m the previous year, below the trustees’ target of between £18.3m and £27.5m.

A spokesman for the RNIB said: "The reported losses are part of the financial transformation embarked on at the RNIB.

"We expect to stem that operational loss fully in this current financial year, 2017/18.

"The accounts show a significant actuarial loss on the main pension scheme of £16.8m. This is mostly due to external factors, including a significant decrease in the discount rate used to value the scheme liabilities. No additional cash payments result from this accounting valuation."