The Diocese of Leeds is pleased to be able to offer some £280,000 to support work on church buildings this year, through our Church Buildings Grants and Loan Scheme.
Last year, the diocese was able to award over £210,000 to 82 parishes, with most parishes receiving between £2,000 and £4,000.
Our Church Buildings Grants and Loans scheme has three grant funds available to apply to, as well a loan scheme.
The three funds are: Diocesan Church Buildings Grants, which support churches with maintaining and improving their church buildings as vital centres of worship, community and mission; Buildings for Mission Minor Repairs and Improvements Grants, which fund small-scale repairs and improvements which may struggle to access to other support; and Net Zero Carbon Quick Wins Grants, which are aimed at helping churches launch small-scale decarbonisation projects as part of their journey to net zero.
We are running three rounds of funding in 2025, with the application deadline dates being Friday, February 28; Monday, June 30; and Friday, October 31.
Last year, St John‘s Greengates in the Bradford area took advantage of two of our funds to allow for repairs to their porch, where the roof was leaking badly, causing mould and fungus to grow.
As this was not the first impression this welcoming church congregation wanted to give visitors, the church funded work to repair the porch with money from both our Church Buildings Grants and our Buildings for Mission Minor Repairs and Improvements Grants, for some £4,000 in total.
Susan Edmondson, Churchwarden at the church, said: “At St John’s Greengates we have a Victorian church which at present has no heating, and we have hopes and dreams for it under the overall ambition of making it watertight, warm and welcoming.
“In the last few months, we have been encouraged to be able to achieve a small step towards our eventual goal, which is to get our church porch watertight.
“We applied for funding from the diocese in the summer and obtained over half the cost of our project with grants from the Diocesan Church Buildings Grant Scheme and the Buildings for Mission Minor Repairs and Improvements Fund.
“The process of applying was very straightforward, and advice was available.
“Our top tip would be, if you are considering applying for a grant, you will need a clear mission statement and evidence of your church mission activities.
“The process has kick-started various discussions in our church about vision and values, which is an added bonus and will be essential if we go on to seek more funding.”
The Diocesan Church Buildings Grants scheme was launched in 2021, and currently provides £80,000 of grants per year for a minimum of five years.
Early in 2024 the Diocese of Leeds received additional “Buildings for Mission” grant funding totalling £272,000 from the Church of England’s 2023 -25 Triennium funding round, providing important investment for the future sustainability of our church buildings.
In the summer of 2024, the Diocese of Leeds received a further £68,850 from the Church of England’s Net Zero Carbon Quick Wins Grants for 2024-25.
The diocese would encourage parishes looking to make an application to get in touch with us for support.
For queries regarding the scheme, or for support in completing an application, please email ResourcingParishes@leeds.anglican.org.
For more details, and application documentation including full eligibility criteria, please click here.