Sir Philip Rutnam calls for Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme to be renewed

The future of church buildings is our biggest heritage challenge. The National Churches Trust is doing all it can to raise awareness of the vital importance of The Listed Place of Worship Grants Scheme and to urge the UK Government to renew this vital scheme.

Read the letter Sir Philip Rutnam, Chair of the National Churches Trust, sent to the Treasury in which he calls for the UK Government to renew the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme. You can also use it as a template to contact your own MP to ask them to renew it, or read our letter published in The Times for talking points, entitled 'Plea for Churches'. 

Sir Philip’s letter to the Chancellor

"I am writing to you directly because I want to ensure that you and your team are aware of a decision that needs to be taken in the Budget on 30 October. This is not an issue with any major fiscal consequences, but it does have real long-term significance for voluntary activity across the UK, and for the future of the country’s heritage.  

The issue is about whether or not to renew the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme – a scheme which allows listed places of worship (of all faiths) across the UK to reclaim the VAT that they pay on repairs.  

This scheme was introduced by Gordon Brown in 2004 because he was concerned about the impact of changes to VAT on the future of these buildings and what happens inside them. Since then, it has been renewed by every government in power, but now a new decision needs to be made because the current commitment ends in March 2025.  

The cost of the scheme is typically £25-40 million a year, which forms part of DCMS’s budget. But its strategic significance goes far beyond this – and I would urge the Government to renew the scheme for at least a further three years as a consequence.  

A few points of context will help explain why this matters:  

• In the UK, unlike most major countries in Europe, places of worship are almost entirely the responsibility of local people. There is no system of state ownership or church-related taxes as there is in, say, France, Germany, Italy or most of Scandinavia. A few denominations have endowments, but these are generally used to meet national costs like pensions, not local buildings.  
• The scale of the buildings maintained in this way is astonishing. There are about 38,500 Christian places of worship in the UK – and of course many more from other faiths. These buildings represent an extraordinary resource that reaches every community. By comparison the UK has just 3600 public libraries and 7900 GP surgeries.  
• These buildings form by far the biggest base for voluntary activity in the UK. There is voluntary activity of just about every kind: youth groups, groups for Mums and toddlers, for the elderly, and for the lonely or vulnerable. The sheer scale of this activity, and its local nature, means it is regularly taken for granted, but to give some examples:

     Most of the UK’s foodbanks are based in churches –  more than there are UK branches of McDonald’s  

     Alcoholics Anonymous use churches or church halls for meetings – more than any other type of venue  

     Churches are by far the biggest venue for amateur music making – choirs and orchestras use them more often than any other space

• At the same time, these buildings account for nearly half of Britain’s most important historic buildings (Grade I or equivalent), as well as by far the nation’s largest art collections (sculpture, stained glass, wall paintings, vernacular art etc). Around 20,000 places of worship are listed and church buildings form a vital part of the identity of Britain’s landscape and townscape for tens of thousands of communities.
• All the major Christian denominations have large numbers of listed buildings, as well as listed buildings belonging to other faiths: not just the Church of England but the Church of Scotland, the Church of Ireland, the Church in Wales, the Catholic Church in all parts of the United Kingdom, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the United Reformed Church, as well as many other smaller and independent denominations.  

All of this voluntary endeavour, and the stewardship of the nation’s heritage, rests on local people, their initiative and resourcefulness. 

If the Government were not to renew the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme that task would be made much harder – 20 % harder in fact – wherever a listed building needs to be maintained or repaired. Quite simply, local funds would now need to be raised to pay VAT to the Government, on top of the costs of skilled labour, materials etc.  

There is no doubt that this would tip many buildings and community activities that would otherwise continue into closure. Evidence of this can be seen in the financial crisis that is already affecting church buildings: the Church of England alone has a backlog of repairs to parish churches estimated at over £1 billion, and large scale closures are sweeping churches in Scotland and Wales.  

We believe that there is enormous potential for places of worship to contribute more to the Government’s agenda of economic and social renewal, not least by supporting many of our most vulnerable communities and individuals – and to do so at little or no additional cost to the State. In slower time, in advance of the Spending Review, we would like to discuss these ideas with Ministers. But in the immediate future, we would urge that you do not send this contribution into a negative, downward spiral – and that therefore the UK Government commits to extending the refund of VAT through the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme for at least a further three years, or for preference longer."