MPs have been urged to lift the £25,000 cap on grants offered to churches under the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, because the funds don’t go nearly far enough in lots of cases.
This is creating uncertainty in local communities, the Church of England added.
The government prolonged the scheme for an additional 12 months in January, but substantially reduced the quantity of funding available and introduced the £25,000 cap on each grant.
A cross-party debate in Westminster Hall heard how the cap is having a “huge impact” on as many as 260 churches across the country, that are struggling to search out the cash to start or proceed vital repairs.
Marsha de Cordova, MP for Battersea and Second Church Estates Commissioner and one in all the controversy organisers, said that the present grant scheme ought to be made everlasting and the cap lifted. She also called for a latest capital funding scheme to be made available to all listed places of worship, no matter faith or denomination.
De Cordova noted that her own church, Holy Trinity Clapham is attempting to develop into more accessible to the local people, but that the £25,000 being offered by the federal government falls far wanting the seven figure fund that’s required to finish the undertaking.
She stated that the dearth of funds and the dearth of certainty about whether even that might be available in the longer term was stopping lots of on-the-ground advantages from materialising in local communities.
“[The Church] provides local communities with huge amounts of support, corresponding to advice and advocacy on debt, providing hot meals and sport and social activities,” she said.
She went on to say that the dearth of certainty is “stopping craft businesses, corresponding to masons and glaziers, from taking over apprentices, as they’re unable to ensure work”.
MPs from across the political divide joined the controversy and praised the assorted advantages that churches bring to their local communities, providing spiritual solace, mental health assistance, food banks and cultural spaces amongst other things.
 MPs have been urged to lift the £25,000 cap on grants offered to churches under the Listed Places of Worship...){kind=link}