BASINGSTOKE’S MP will today grill the Government about the plight of a Hampshire children’s charity that has been hard hit by the collapse of an Icelandic bank.

Maria Miller has secured the House of Commons debate to press the Government on what it is going to do to help Naomi House children’s hospice, which was left in a financial hole when an Icelandic bank that held £5.7million of its savings collapsed.

Two months after Kaupthing Singer Friedlander went into administration, the hospice trustees are still fighting to get the hospice money back – but they are getting increasingly frustrated at the Government’s silence and lack of action.

Last week, the trustees decided they had no other choice but to suspend the hospice’s outreach respite service until funds are recovered.

The outreach service – which has been running in Basingstoke, Southampton and Winchester since last year and was due to be extended – provides cover for families in an emergency, such as a parent needing to go to hospital.

Last week, Professor Khalid Aziz, chairman of the Wessex Children’s Hospice trust, which runs the Sutton Scotney-based hospice, said: “We pride ourselves on our ability to respond to families’ needs, especially at the most difficult times when they have no one else to turn to.

“Now, as a result of a situation not of our making, we cannot deliver a vital service that we usually provide. We simply cannot accept that the Government will let this situation continue and we urge that they give assurances that our funds will be returned in full immediately.”

Mrs Miller told The Gazette: “Today is an opportunity to ask some really serious questions about the support that Naomi House needs and to get some clarification of what the Government plans to do.”

The Government promised a £100m fund to support charities hit by the collapse of Icelandic banks until they got their money back, but Mrs Miller said: “That money has not yet been made available.”

She added: “I am going to be pressing the Government on how they are going to be making that money available and when.

“It’s that kind of financial support that is going to make the difference between Naomi House continuing with services and making the cuts we heard about last week.”

Mrs Miller said the British Government had frozen the money caught up in the Icelandic bank’s assets, and she will seek an update on when that will be returned.

Hospice chief executive Ray Kipling said the Government has agreed to underwrite the losses of private individual investors in the bank. He added that Naomi House, which has cared for more than 400 children with life-limiting illnesses from across Hampshire, Berkshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight since the first family came to stay in 1997, wants the same protection.

Mr Kipling said: “Individual investors should be protected but so should the charities because we represent hundreds of thousands of pounds donated over the years, from a granny who has given £10 to a Scout group which has raised £50. It’s public money still and we want it back.

“We are saying to the Government, ‘You have to stand by us’ – but there is a deafening silence from them.”

Mr Kipling rejected the suggestion that trust bosses were wrong to invest in the bank, saying no one had any idea it was in trouble until two days before it collapsed. He added the bank had also been given the second-highest credit agency rating.

He said: “We took independent advice. If those people get it wrong where else should we take it from?”

The hospice had £5.7million in cash in the bank to pay for a six-bed new hospice it is building for young adults, called jacksplace.

Mr Kipling said the hospice shuffled funds around to pay for the building work, but needs its money back when jacksplace opens next year.

“Naomi House is secure and safe,” he said. “Come next autumn, the money to run jacksplace is going to have to be paid for and that’s why we want the cash back. If we don’t get that, we will have to do some serious thinking.”

The hospice has stepped up efforts to have its money returned by banding together with 26 other charities which collectively stand to lose £50million.

The new Save our Savings Group, which Naomi House is leading with Cats Protection, scored an early victory on Monday when it won a place on the bank’s creditors’ committee.

Prof Aziz said: “We welcome our inclusion on the creditors’ committee. We are determined to take this opportunity to represent the interests of charities that have come together and will work to secure the return of our funds.”