Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to his contribution of 8 September 2014, Official Report, column 649, which groups funded by his Department are working in (a) mosques, (b) churches and (c) synagogues.

This Department does not fund any single-faith groups. Our approach is to fund projects that bring people of different faiths and backgrounds together, a policy we feel that helps integrate people better and build stronger communities.

Examples of our integration projects include Near Neighbours and Together in Service. These two programmes work with both places of worship and secular venues to encourage interfaith collaboration. Near Neighbours is designed to bring people together in religiously and ethnically diverse communities, by helping to create multi-faith events that encourage social interaction; whilst Together in Service celebrates social action projects based around each of the faith communities’ religious festivals or volunteering days, designed to inspire new work around multi-faith volunteering projects.

Not all projects under the Near Neighbours programme work from or with a place of worship. However, there are examples that do. Phase one witnessed funding being used to establish a local Jewish-Christian Forum in Stamford Hill, London; whilst under Phase 2, following an arson attack by the English Defence League on their centre, the Somali Bravanese Welfare Association in London was welcomed by a local synagogue to celebrate Eid together. 400 people gathered to celebrate.

Again, with Together in Service, not all projects work from or with a place of worship. However, there are examples that do. Under the Department’s Together in Service programme, St Paul’s Church in Birmingham is tackling community cohesion and integration through advice and support for various faith groups, whilst Trinity at Bowes Methodist Church and Community Centre aims to build better connections between different faith communities in their local area through a series of activities in order to prevent people becoming isolated.