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

To ask His Majesty's Government what forms of financial support are available from the Government, and arms-length bodies such as National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England, for fabric repairs to local church buildings, excluding cathedrals.

HM Government makes available £42 million per annum through the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme. This reimburses VAT on eligible repair works over £1,000.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund invests Lottery players’ funding to sustain the UK’s heritage. The Fund runs open-access grant programmes, to which local churches can apply, providing their project meets its four principal investment themes: saving heritage, protecting the environment, inclusion access and participation, and organisational sustainability. Applicants must take all four principles into account in their application, although the strength of focus and emphasis on each principle is for them to decide and demonstrate.

Historic England provides grants for churches in specific circumstances: where the congregation has a long-standing moral objection to Lottery funding and can provide evidence of that; where the building is not eligible for any National Lottery Heritage Fund grant programme; where it relates to exceptional emergency funding to stabilise the condition of a place of worship; or to prevent further deterioration in the next two years and where the applicant can demonstrate that discussions have already begun with the National Lottery Heritage Fund. To be eligible for a grant, a place of worship must be a grade I or II* listed building, or a grade II listed or unlisted building within a Conservation Area or London Borough.