Question

To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to the Low Income Communities Funding, if the Commissioners will ask the Bishop of Truro to pass on the benefits from that funding to mission in Truro's lowest income communities, such as by reducing their parish share, as opposed to leaving it to underwrite the diocesan deficit.

The award, monitoring and evaluation of Lowest Income Communities Funding is the responsibility of the Archbishops' Council, as delegated to its Strategic Investment Board. The primary business of the diocese is to fund mission in parishes, chiefly through funding the provision of stipendiary clergy, and so the primary driver of a deficit or surplus is the difference in cost between ministry funded and funds received from parishes and other sources towards these ministry costs.

The Diocese of Truro expects that by 2023 all or nearly all of the funding received from the Lowest Income Communities Fund will have been passed onto funding ministry and mission in the diocese's lowest income communities, and not underwriting the diocesan deficit.