Alan Higgs

Alan Edward Higgs was a businessman who became a multimillionaire mainly from his house building business in Coventry, as well as from other businesses in Birmingham, England.^[1] He died in 1979, and because he thought that inherited wealth did more harm than good, he made provision for a charity to be created after his death to help deprived children from Coventry and nearby localities.^[2]

Alan Edward Higgs Charity

The Alan Edward Higgs Charity (sometimes incorrectly called the Alan Higgs Trust) benefited from Higgs's entire estate of approximately £26 million.^[3] It was set up specifically to help deprived children from Coventry. Higgs's son Derek Higgs, who was knighted in 2004, and his daughter became the trustees.^[1][4]

The charity has given millions of pounds to good causes over the years.^[1] It gave the money to build The Alan Higgs Centre, a leisure centre in southeast Coventry,^[5] and partly owned the Ricoh Arena.