The government have recently announced that the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme will be extended into the next financial year, providing £23 million so that thousands of historical buildings, including churches, can carry out restoration work.
The scheme gives grants towards VAT paid on repairs and renovations to the UK’s listed sites of worship, such as works to the foundations, masonry and monuments integral to the buildings.
There will be a cap of £25,000 that an organisation can claim during the year, which can be spread across multiple claims.
Andrew Hall, Chair of the Diocesan Advisory Committee, said: "The recent news that the Government has extended the Listed Places of Worship grant scheme for a further year to April 2026 is most welcome.
“This scheme provides extremely valuable support for vital repairs to our churches, where often parishes will struggle financially to meet the costs of essential works.
“Unfortunately, the new scheme is less useful for those churches who face major bills, and we must hope that when the grant is next reviewed this need will again be recognised.
“In the meantime, parishes planning works are strongly encouraged to make use of this very worthwhile financial support for places of worship."
St Stephen’s Lindley, in the Huddersfield area, have recently taken advantage of the grant scheme to help with their roof repairs.
The church has been on the Heritage at Risk Register since 2014, with the roofs, gutters and drainage in need of repair.
The church has recently completed a project to re-roof the south slope of the nave, in part supported by the Listed Places of Worship grant scheme, allowing the church to claim back some £20,000.
The Revd Abbie Palmer, Vicar at the church, said: “The project to renew and repair our main church roof and rainwater goods had to be separated into two phases to be realistic about the funds we could raise.
"As costs of building work have risen sharply in recent years, we found the project cost more than double the initial estimate.
"We were only able to proceed with the new south nave roof because of the knowledge of the VAT reclaim of over £25,000 we would receive from the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.
"Had this grant not been available, it is likely we would have needed to delay the project for at least a further year, likely costing even more and putting the building at further risk of water ingress in the meantime.
"Without future funding from the LPWGS we are likely to have to wait even longer to secure funds to complete this necessary work (reroofing the north nave roof and increasing the way water can discharge from the roof), risking the building's health and reducing our energy efficiency with insulation on only one side of the roof.
"The LPWG Scheme is what makes the necessary but expensive work of maintaining our historic listed places of worship possible.
"Without it, I fear more buildings will fall into disrepair and become unusable for their communities.”
To find out more about the Listed Places of Worship grant scheme, please click here.