THE Government’s Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, set to run out on 31 March, has run out of funds before the introduction of its substitute, the Places of Worship Renewal Fund, leaving potentially tons of of churches in difficulty, and 21,000 — nearly all of churches — subject to VAT overnight.
The recent £23-million-a-year fund — a drop in real terms from the previous £42-million budget in 2024/2025 — has already been exhausted, the National Churches Trust (NCT) says.
Churches now do not know what government support they’ll expect to receive within the six weeks remaining until the tip of the financial yr, it says.
National Churches TrustA window in St Grada and Holy Cross, Cornwall. The church is in urgent need of repair work to its roof and tower and is struggling to boost the brand new funds needed with the added VAT costs, National Churches Trust reports
“Why is the brand new scheme not up and running already?” its press release on Friday asks. “We now are more likely to have a major period where there is no such thing as a government support available to churches — something that was entirely avoidable.
“The way forward for churches is our biggest heritage challenge. Almost 1000 churches are on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register and one in 20 churches within the UK needs a recent roof or gutters this yr. The Government have been caught short — they haven’t any scheme or funding in place to assist keep churches open. They have withdrawn help from churches after they need it most.”
It describes the extra 20-per-cent VAT tax as “the most important blow of all”.
Sir Philip Rutnam, who chairs the Trust, said that the news had left potentially tons of of churches within the lurch. “After 25 successful years, the Government has removed a lifeline for churches which was introduced by a Labour Chancellor in 2001, allowing them to reclaim VAT on repairs.
“With 1000’s of churches in danger, that is yet one more blow to our national heritage, as many will now be unable to pay for urgent repairs.”
The Trust has already expressed concern that, since churches depended overwhelmingly on volunteers, the scheme needed to be easy, accessible, and predictable. It said that the scheme also needed to work “in an agile way, in order that it doesn’t decelerate urgent repair works which might be needing to be made, particularly following bad weather and storms”.
The Trust has also said: “Churches across the UK save the NHS costs of £8.3 billion a yr from community support they host and run of their buildings. A small thing for the UK Government, but what would make an enormous difference to churches, is to remove this tax burden.”
