Government funding

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport administers the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, which refunds VAT on repairs and maintenance for listed places of worship. This scheme has operated since 2001 and has recently been extended until April 2015. It has now returned to its original eligibility scope – excluding items such as professional fees and repairs to organs, pews, bells and clocks – and operates to an annual fixed budget.The way in which payments under the scheme are claimed and calculated has undergone some significant changes from 2011-12 onwards, so do check the scheme's website for the full details.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport have confirmed that:

• The new scheme will not be operational until the 2nd quarter of 11/12 with the first payments under the new scheme made in September 2011;
• the scheme will operate with quarterly fixed budgets. Payments will be made once per quarter and the payable rate will depend on the value of the eligible claims received in that quarter, with each claim attracting a fair pro-rata payment. The benefits of this are that everyone will receive a payment and we will ensure that all available money is used;
• the maximum grant payable in response to any application will be 20% of project costs (i.e. the maximum payable will be the full rate of VAT incurred on eligible expenditure) and the scope continues as it has been since January 4th. If the total funding is not used in any quarter, it will be available in the following quarter (but not transferable between financial years). We will publicise at the end of each quarter the value of the applications received and the applicable payable rate; and
• applications will be made in the same way as before, except that it will not be possible to accept claims where the supporting invoices are more than one year old. The previous scheme’s open-ended approach was too lax for efficient management, but we think that giving everyone a full year to submit their applications should still be plenty of time.