Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, why her Department introduced a cap of £25,000 on claims through the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.

The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme was previously funded to March 2025. In January this government announced that we would extend the Scheme for one year with an overall budget of £23 million in recognition of the importance of listed places of worship both in terms of heritage and to their local communities. This has enabled religious organisations to continue to claim grants in respect of eligible VAT costs paid towards repairs and renovations. To ensure this budget remains affordable, claims are now capped at £25,000 per place of worship. These changes to the scheme were necessary given the level of fiscal challenges we inherited, a number of unfunded commitments made by the previous government and the pressures on other parts of the heritage and cultural sectors. In terms of the evidential basis for decisions, the Department was able to look at average spend since 2017 and, without the cap, spending was c£29m out of a maximum envelope of £42m. To ensure this budget was affordable, a cap was introduced. Based on the Department’s analysis of this data, 94% of applications will be unaffected by the change, and most claims are under £5,000.