Written evidence submitted by the
Church of England
Executive Summary
Introduction
The Church of England’s Cathedral and Church Buildings
Churches and cathedrals are some of our nation’s most important public buildings, valued highly for their architecture, for their history and for the economic and social benefits they bring to the communities they serve. With a presence in every community, these heritage assets belong to all of us, whether we are Christian, of other faith or of none. They tell ‘our nation’s story in stone’ through the people who built them, and those who have worshipped, been baptised, married and buried in them. These buildings are cared for primarily through the voluntary work of thousands of local parishioners, yet serve the whole nation as places of worship, commemoration, and social engagement. In some places, they are the last remaining community space and asset. They are sustained through a sense of local, collective ownership and duty.
Church buildings account for a vast amount of our nation’s rich and diverse heritage. The Church of England cares for roughly 16,000 churches and 42 cathedrals in every corner of England. 12,500 of these are listed and nearly half of our nation’s Grade I listed buildings are churches and cathedrals. Durham Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are also UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and several other churches sit in World Heritage Sites. Many churches and cathedrals form part of Scheduled Ancient Monuments.
Most Church of England parishes have at least one historic church building to use, maintain and share, increasingly the only open public place in a local area. They are places where people can gather with each other and find community and friendship and respite from loneliness. They are places of refuge and sanctuary in times of crisis and need. They have long been, and are increasingly again, warm places in times of cold, cool places in times of heat, and refuges during extreme weather events.
The Church of England has excellent access to expertise to understand and manage its remarkable share of our nation’s built heritage. Through ongoing engagement within the sector, the Church of England delivers ecclesiastical exemption from listed building consent through the Faculty Jurisdiction Rules and the Care of Cathedrals Measure. This gives us the background to speak to the importance of built heritage in the UK.
Long-term sustained funding for our heritage assets
The greatest risk to this extraordinary built heritage is the lack of a long-term and sustained collaborative funding strategy for the maintenance and repair of historic church buildings. Ancient and modern cathedrals and parish churches are large and complex buildings that are hugely expensive to maintain. Historic England’s 2024 Heritage at Risk Register revealed there are 969 places of worship at risk, of which 911 are Church of England churches (Historic England Reveals its Heritage at Risk Register 2024). Despite the ongoing hard work of many dedicated volunteers and professionals who care for church buildings, we estimate a backlog of major repairs over £1bn.
Major funding schemes such as the Government’s Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS) and the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) provide funding lifelines for many historic cathedrals and churches. However, applying for such funding can be challenging for the (mainly) volunteers responsible for looking after our nation’s historic places of worship. Additionally, the funding available is not commensurate with the financial challenge our historic churches face.
The Church of England is committed to continue working collaboratively with partners across the places of worship and heritage sectors together with the Department of Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) to find long-term sustainable funding solutions.
Investing in heritage assets to invest in our communities
Using HM Treasury Green Book methodology, in 2021 the National Churches Trust (NCT) found that cathedral and church buildings contribute £55bn annually to the UK’s social and economic value (The House of Good Update, National Churches Trust, 2021). In addition, with every £1 invested in a church building, the benefit to communities is over £16. More recently, the NCT showed that the essential support services provided by church buildings would cost the National Health Service (NHS) an extra £8.4bn a year to deliver (The House of Good Health, National Churches Trust, 2024).
With many in our society struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, our buildings are part of the solution as demonstrated by the recent Heritage Alliance report On the Brink: Heritage in the cost of living crisis, May 2024. Investing in keeping these buildings structurally sound, wind- and water-tight, warm and accessible, is not only vital to invest in the sustainability of our built heritage, but also for the very sustainability of our communities and national life.
Cathedrals and church buildings are used for community and civic events, concerts, and as warm, dry, safe spaces for vulnerable people. 77% of our churches are involved in one or more forms of social action (Statistics for Mission, The Church of England, 2022). Over 13,000 of our churches were involved in 31,300 social action projects a year (at least 2 groups per parish) including emergency food provision in areas of lower economic activity, community cafes, warm spaces, parent and toddler drop-ins, and debt counselling. Thousands of those projects were carried out in partnership with other organisations.
Cathedrals benefit from the time and skills of over 15,000 volunteers; and provide organised educational activities to more than 300,000 visitors (most commonly primary school groups) each year, covering a range of curriculum subjects. Research has shown that 76% of local people feel their cathedral is relevant to their daily lives, and 79% recognise that their cathedral contributes to their local community (Spiritual Capital: The Present and Future of English Cathedrals, Theos, 2012).
Churches in the most deprived parishes are far more likely to struggle than those in less deprived areas and even more likely to close (Struggling, Closed and Closing Churches Research Project, Church of England Church Buildings Council, February 2020). These areas are also often those that are home to diverse socioeconomic and ethnic communities and may already be the last public buildings open in those areas. The NCT found that in urban areas, churches generate more social value in total as they can host and serve more people. This is especially true in areas of lower economic activity where they are also at greatest risk of closure (The House of Good Key Findings and Technical Report, National Churches Trust, 2020).
The value of built heritage
Cathedrals and church buildings tell the stories of our places that make up the whole nation, drawing visitors for many reasons and from all over. Heritage is ‘A Great British Asset’ that tells our stories, supports social cohesion and resilience, and informs a sense of place (The Heritage Manifesto 2024, The Heritage Alliance). England’s heritage produces a £45.1bn gross value added (GVA) impact, equivalent to 2.5% national GVA, and provides over 538,000 jobs. It underpins the success of multiple other sectors, from construction to creative industries. Using our existing heritage assets is also key to shifting to a carbon neutral and climate resilient future, contributing to a green skills revolution, and reactivating many of our town and city centres.
The contribution of churches and cathedrals to our creative industries and to tourism is significant. 9.35 million people visited English cathedrals in 2023, a 17% increase from 2022, with many of the visitors coming from overseas. A 2021 study (The Economic and Social Impact of England's Cathedrals, Ecorys, 2021) found that the 42 cathedrals alone generate approximately £235 million in local spending per year; and support 5,535 jobs in their local economies.
In addition to their architectural significance, cathedrals, church buildings, and chapels of all denominations form the nation's largest collections of sculpture, stained glass, wall paintings, woodwork, stonemasonry, metalwork and vernacular art, the majority of which is accessible to the public free of charge. These historic interiors provide opportunities to sustain the skilled workforce of conservation and crafts professionals that is needed for their conservation and repair.
How the Church of England cares for Cathedral and Church Buildings
Historically and today, Church of England parish churches are foremost cared for on a daily and long-term basis by an extraordinary network of thousands of volunteers who voluntarily care for churches, cleaning the gutters and supporting essential maintenance, fundraising and applying for grants, ensuring the building is accessible and secure, and opening it up for all the missional, community and social impact work to take place day in, day out. Cathedrals are similarly supported by many volunteers, welcoming people to and explaining the remarkable heritage assets as well as caring for the estate.
At a County/diocesan level further voluntary time is given to support the care of church and cathedral buildings though volunteer-run Diocesan Advisory Committees (churches) and Fabric Advisory Committees (cathedrals). Taken together these committees provide, at no cost to the state, advice and guidance to achieve good practice in care for churches and cathedrals and their appropriate development. The value of voluntary advisory and guidance work brought to church and cathedral buildings would not be available to the sector if it was structured in a way that required it to be paid for. And the cost to the state of providing this would make very substantial demands on local authority planning and conservation officers.
To advocate for and support our cathedrals and church buildings, we work with partners across the places of worship and heritage sectors, funding partners, and Government partners in HM Treasury, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
The Church Commissioners’ Cathedral and Church Buildings Department (CCB) leads on national support for church buildings, working with dioceses and parishes throughout England. The CCB includes heritage specialists based around the country who support the conservation and development of our cathedrals and church buildings and their contents for worship, mission and community engagement.
The CCB is responsible for three statutory legislative committees: the Church Buildings Council (CBC), the Statutory Advisory Committee (SAC) and the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England (CFCE); the Mission, Pastoral and Church Property Committee settles the future of closed church buildings. Each is comprised of expert volunteers who advise on major casework, policy and best practice. Between them some 45 people generously give their time to provide advice and direction for developing and protecting Church of England church buildings. Four of these are nominated by the Secretary of State for DCMS to serve on the SAC. In the case of cathedrals, the CFCE, comprised of 24 expert volunteers appointed after consultation with, amongst others, DCMS and a range of professional bodies and learned societies also makes decisions on applications for certain types of work, with powers and duties set out in the Care of Cathedrals Measure 2011. Additionally, we have 6 Conservation Committees which provide specialist advice and grants on special items (bells, clocks, wall paintings, stained glass, word carvings, monuments) (see Conservation Grants Report, Church of England, 2023), a Contested Heritage Committee, and a Net Zero Carbon and Building Services Committee. A further 65 people serve on these committees.
Response to questions
1. What are the most significant challenges facing owners and operators of built heritage assets, and how are they affecting what those sites can offer?
What interventions are needed to prevent the managed decline of heritage assets on publicly owned land?
What can the Government do to make it easier for communities or local businesses to take ownership of historic buildings?
The need for long-term sustained funding
The heritage sector is resilient and resourceful, fortified by investment from funders – but it can only do so much without sustained support (On the Brink: Heritage in the cost of living crisis, Heritage Alliance, May 2024). Unlike in Europe where the state plays a major role in supporting religious buildings, either through systems of ownership (France) or taxation (Germany or Italy), the UK does not have a secure pipeline of funding from the Government (A Look at Church Taxes in Western Europe, Pew Research Center, July 2019). Church buildings have always required maintenance, but the situation has been exacerbated by a range of factors in recent years, including significant increases in materials, labour and energy costs to undertake repairs, the need to make adaptations to deal with more extreme weather events in the face of climate change, and a reduction in the number of regular worshippers and thus reduced giving at parish level (The Heritage Index and the Rising Price of Materials, The Heritage Alliance, July 2019.
The Church very much plays its part in sustaining the community resource of historic church buildings. English parish churches spend over £1bn per year, paid for predominantly by the generous giving and legacies of parishioners, topped up by other fundraising and grant-giving. Church of England parishes collectively spend £115m on repairs annually (16% of their overall annual expenditure) (Parish Finance Statistics, Church of England, 2022). This triennium (2023-25) the Church Commissioners will contribute funding of £400m per annum to the Church of England - over 20% of the total Church spend. As well as meeting pension obligations and statutory responsibilities to support Bishops and Cathedrals, the Commissioners also provides grants to dioceses to help with ministry costs in low-income areas and strategic projects to help churches grow in under-served places. In this triennium, new funding streams are supporting Buildings for Mission (£11m), which provides dioceses with locally based church buildings support and grants for minor repairs, and the programme for Net Zero Carbon 2030 (£30m).
However, perhaps the best way we support churches is to keep them open, accessible and thriving, as it is then much more likely that the congregation will have the volunteers and the funds to care for the buildings. Churches would benefit from further support for day-to-day operations and maintenance support, e.g. through VAT relief on regular maintenance and repairs. The best way to avoid historic buildings needing big repair bills is to keep them warm, dry, well maintained with “stitch-in-time” repairs and occupied with people who need them.
The lack of long-term sustained funding also impacts upon the ability of our buildings and their historic interiors to support the circular economy as it applies to heritage. Under-resourcing from financial and skills pressures limits the ability to adapt our church and cathedral buildings, wasting opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint. Additionally, our buildings are in constant use, which has been demonstrated to be the most important parameter for a working circular economy as applied to re-use of historic buildings (Circular economy in the heritage conservation sector, Science Direct, 2023).
Previous Government funding schemes
Recent Government grant funding schemes have been short-term and frequently announced at short notice, with tight application deadlines. Though funding is always welcome, this model poses a series of challenges to the sector. A lack of certainty as to when funding will be available has a negative knock-on effect for the building and construction industry and those in the heritage skills sector, as well as for the communities who use these buildings. Significant building repairs often need more time to plan and deliver repairs than the length of these short-term schemes allows, and where tying delivery of projects to Treasury deadlines for expenditure leads to work needing to be undertaken during the winter months. Smaller places of worship are less likely to have ‘shovel-ready’ projects in reserve to take advantage of sudden funding opportunities and may also struggle to raise match-funding at short notice. which frequently causes project delays.
The first dedicated Government led scheme for repairs to historic places of worship was the Grants for Places of Worship Scheme (GPOW). Between 1977 and 2017, GPOW granted £30m per year from the (then) Heritage Lottery Fund. More recently, there have been a series of short-term focused grant giving and stimulus schemes:
The Church of England has a long and positive history of working with Government to efficiently and collaboratively distribute funding through schemes such as these, and evaluation and testimony show how valued and impactful these funds have been.
Recommendation 1: Government should recognise its leadership role and the interest of Parliament. It should work cross-party, with the principal denominations and with civil society to develop a plan of action for the future of our cathedrals and church buildings.
Recommendation 2: Government and sector partners, including the Church of England, should review and analyse the evaluations of these impactful funding schemes to design the most effective scale and means of providing a capital repairs funding scheme across listed buildings of all denominations and faiths.
National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF)
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has been a hugely valued partner in funding our built heritage for 30 years. In 2024, the NLHF announced a £100m funding commitment to support places of worship over the next three years to make the sector more sustainable, secure and accessible and build skills to ensure preservation in the long long-term (The National Lottery Heritage Fund, December 2024). This is hugely welcome and responds to a substantial gap in funding for churches, but even this cannot support every place of worship now (cathedrals are not included in this particular commitment, for example) and, given the wide portfolio of NLHF funding, places of worship cannot necessarily expect to receive comparable amounts from the Fund in future.
Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS)
The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS) has been running since 2001 and helps all worshipping communities in all parts of the country. Without the LPWGS, 20% more funds would need to be raised by local people to pay VAT to the Government for charitable donations, on top of the costs of skilled labour, materials, and other project costs. The LPWGS scheme is particularly vital to less affluent areas where hard working volunteers and parishioners fundraise and care for church buildings.
The LPWGS is also an incentive to other funders as it means that 100% of their money will go towards necessary and urgent repair works, which in turn supports conservation and craft skills and the building sector. Although we welcome the announcement of the fund’s extension for another 12 months, the total budget for the fund had been reduced from £42m to £23m. The annual amount that could be claimed by a single place of worship had also been capped at £25k which will pose significant challenges to major repair schemes. This will be particularly challenging for the largest buildings such as cathedrals and Major Churches (defined by qualities like size and significance), yet even an average size church could incur well above £25k VAT for a normal roofing project.
Recommendation 3: Until progress can be made toward a zero VAT regime for repair and maintenance, the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme should be made permanent and return to being fully funded.
A permanent scheme would enable larger places of worship, such as cathedrals, which plan their repair work over five- to 20-year periods, to commit to long-term projects with certainty that VAT costs will be covered by grant. It would also ensure that parish churches with major repair schemes, and Major Parish Churches, which often have higher costs due to their scale and civic presence, would have confidence to complete urgent works to support communities.
We acknowledge the scale of the financial challenges in the country right now and appreciate that immediate support for historic churches may not be possible. However, we would like to emphasise the need and the relevance and seek to work collaboratively with Government to design a way forward in the medium to longer term. We know what works: predictable, reliable sources of funding, often relatively small sums per building to keep up with maintenance and make small scale but vital improvements (such as accessible toilets and kitchenettes) that will make them viable.
There is also a pressing need of funding for Major Capital Repairs for historic church buildings. Given the scale of repair need across all denominations, and the vital role that water-tight, well-placed historic church buildings play in our national life and sustaining communities, there is a need for Government support. The Government can help play a crucial role with this generational opportunity to support these buildings at the heart of communities that make such an impactful difference to people’s lives.
Recommendation 4: We propose a new capital funding scheme for listed buildings of all faiths and denominations, establishing a recurring fund of at least £50 million per year, with proportionate funding provided for the devolved administrations. The majority of the cost should be covered by the taxpayer, with contributions from other partners, and should be administered in collaboration with relevant organisations in the faith buildings and heritage sector.
Such a fund would make an extraordinary difference towards sustaining historic church buildings, at the heart of communities and with communities at their heart, into the future. It would enable immediate support for urgent fabric repairs and facilities for Heritage at Risk places of worship, particularly in areas of lower economic activity. A fund like this would allow busy volunteers and clergy, who keep historic churches going, to continue to be the glue in their communities. And this has a multiplying effect – watertight, well insulated, well serviced and well-placed historic churches are welcoming homes for clubs, arts events and social work that boost and serve communities.
Vulnerability due to climate change and increased extreme weather events
As the climate continues to change, weather events such as flooding, storms, sea-level rise, and increased temperatures will become more frequent and extreme. Our historic buildings are vulnerable and will need greater support to be sustained and become climate resilient (Climate resilient church, The Church of England). Climate change also acts as a ‘risk multiplier’ which means the effects of climate change are likely to magnify existing issues, with climate change effects affecting historic buildings across the country (Historic England, Climate Changes Risks and Hazard, October 2024). The Church of England’s Net Zero Carbon Programme and Routemap sets out guidance and tools and resources to support parishes and dioceses to shift to net zero carbon by 2030 and become climate resilient. The Church Commissioners of England have committed £190m to the Net Zero Programme from 2023 to 2031 (Net Zero Carbon Impact report, Church of England, 2024).
Working collaboratively with the Government and sector partners
Churches are the most intrinsically local and grassroots of our built heritage, open to everyone and in every place. They are the responsibility of local people and are looked after by local organisations, not the state or a national church body. This historic system has great strengths in local identity and ownership and means that churches are at the very heart of local communities. But it places burdens on local volunteers to care for and fundraise extensively to keep church buildings standing, open and accessible.
Through a central and diocesan system of buildings professionals, and a network of volunteer experts, and Church Building Support Officers (funded by the Church Commissioners via the Buildings for Mission programme, alongside others funded by Historic England and the National Churches Trust), the Church of England provides expert support. The Church of England is also actively engaged with mutually supportive networks of faith charity and heritage sector organisations working closely on areas such as conservation, repair, funding and Net Zero Carbon. However, this could be magnified through the major denominations, Government, and Historic England, working even more formally together, to ensure supportive and timely advice on conserving, maintaining, environmentally sustaining and funding historic faith buildings.
2. How effective are the current funding and finance models for built heritage?
What should long-term public funding for the sector look like?
Our day-to-day experience of church buildings suggests that – in general – many are in a basically acceptable condition or better. However, this has been achieved hand-to-mouth and is unlikely to be sustainable in an era of rising costs and dwindling volunteer resources without reliable financial support from a range of sources.
Long-term public funding to enable churches to tackle their most urgent repairs requires collaboration amongst the grant giving community. Works to heritage buildings can have long lead times, spread over years, and uncertainty over funding can be a barrier to long-term planning. Because some faith communities care for a far greater number of listed buildings than others, this could be a barrier to funding repairs.
Every church and cathedral must have a 5-year Quinquennial inspection undertaken by a suitably experienced and qualified professional. Quinquennial inspection reports provide a reliable means of identifying the most urgent or ‘stitch in time’ works, and – a more recent innovation – integrate environmental matters and project work as part of our path to Net Zero Carbon. They provide a sound basis for informing how such funding should be directed to where it is most essential.
Successive historical funding schemes have shown that funding made available purely for repair work – including fixing roofs, stonework repair, mains and electrical works, etc., which can be hard to fundraise for and may go unnoticed by most visitors when complete – nonetheless brings a range of positive other outcomes in terms of public engagement and increased activity. The emphasis in grant applications should therefore be on the historic fabric first. Public and community benefits (social and community uses) will flow from the building being in good condition. Securing the historic fabric both ensures that the building is available for ongoing activities and enables staff and volunteers to focus on other activities. Experience of partnership programmes such as the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund has also shown that the recipient organisation is best placed to decide where the funding is most urgently required and applied.
To keep our church buildings open, we are exploring different models, such as Festival Churches, for buildings that are not used for weekly worship, but are valued and required by the community for local events and for Festivals of the Church and for Rites of Passage (Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals) (see also The Association of Festival Churches). Because of the communal and historic importance of these buildings, disposing of them may remove the services they provide. Where churches are no longer needed for worship, i.e. closed churches, we support dioceses and, where possible, the Church Commissioners, in finding new uses for these buildings (for examples, see The Church Commissioners for England Annual Report, 2023).
When it is not realistic to keep a church in worship use the repair and maintenance of an historic place of worship or associated building is a public benefit even where access may be limited through private ownership or other constraints. It is still therefore important to have sources of assistance that enable individuals to keep or acquire such buildings where there is no community-based option, such as a disused, rural church in an isolated location. When new owners acquire a heritage building, consider the conservation deficit, i.e. the amount by which the cost of repair (and conversion to optimum viable use if appropriate) of a heritage asset exceeds its market value on completion of repair or conversion, allowing for appropriate development costs. Grant-repayment rules that accommodated change of ownership of a building within the repayment period of a grant would give some churches more confidence to apply for grants.
3. What role does built heritage play in the regeneration of local areas and in contributing to economic growth and community identity?
How can heritage buildings be supported to increase energy efficiency and contribute to the Government’s net zero targets?
Built heritage and sustainable development
Historic cathedrals and church buildings are often the oldest, most central building in a city, village or town, reflecting their longevity and foundational role in a place’s establishment. They hold their own local histories and create a sense of identity, attracting visitors and acting as hubs for local communities. The connection between built heritage, local regeneration, and building decarbonisation can help to revitalise areas, stimulate economic growth and reactivate spaces. (Towards a Better Balance between Heritage and Growth, Historic Towns and Villages, July 2022).
Sustaining Communities
Cathedral and church buildings are ubiquitous and play a key role in sustaining communities. They can be fundamental to regeneration of local areas. They provide employment, support social cohesion and community resilience and provide a space and a platform for creative arts such as theatre and music. Churches and church halls, for example, comprise 62% of spaces used for leisure-time music performances, and comprise 54% of spaces that leisure-time music groups use to meet regularly, supporting hyperlocal connections and strong community links (Music Matters, Historic Religious Buildings Alliance Big Update, 2024). Cathedral and church buildings are regularly used for community events, drawing locals and visitors alike to theatre events, art exhibitions, and civic ceremonies, opening their doors daily to the public, from early in the morning until the evening.
Adaptation, repair and maintenance of our church and cathedral buildings to enable their active use contributes to the circular economy, mitigating against the unnecessary consumption of resources and reducing waste through reusing and adapting historic buildings rather than demolishing and rebuilding them.
Opportunities for placemaking and supporting economic growth
Church buildings were historically designed to be at the heart of places – their towers and spires reaching out to symbolise their purpose and mark their parish. Churches remain at the heart of places today, landmarks by which we navigate our villages, towns and cities, marking the time-deep centres of our communities. The fabric of these church buildings holds memories and stories that connect us to our ancestors as well as to strangers.
The COVID-19 pandemic showed that church buildings were at the heart of their communities and could often be used to connect with many of the most vulnerable and isolated (COVID-19, Churches & Communities, Centre for the Study of Christianity, University of York, 2021). Many public authorities do not recognise the benefits of working with churches and church buildings which, by their very nature at the heart of communities, often have the trust and linkages in places already. We need to draw on experience from the pandemic to build more trust and understanding with local and national government.
Recommendation 5: We would like to work with Central and Local Government to improve understanding around the value of churches and cathedrals as community infrastructure, undertaking works of huge social benefit in buildings of great significance to our national heritage.
Increasing energy efficiency & contributing to the Government’s net zero targets
With the impacts of the climate emergency becoming more frequent and more damaging, there is an imperative to reduce our carbon emissions. The Church of England’s Net Zero Programme is already delivering action at the parish level to reduce our carbon footprint and energy demands (Net Zero Carbon Impact report, Church of England, 2024). One area where we can achieve greater carbon benefits and contribute to the circular economy from keeping and retrofitting a building than replacing it or losing it. Heritage can actively help to demonstrate how to achieve net zero, regenerate communities, improve our wellbeing, and support our green economy.
Recommendation 6: We encourage the Government to work with us and the wider sector on the following recommendations to support and increase the energy efficiency of our buildings to contribute to the Government’s net zero targets and inspire other historic building owners:
4. What are the financial, regulatory and practical barriers to preserving built heritage?
What policy changes are needed to make restoring historic buildings easier and less expensive?
One of the greatest barriers to preserving and sustaining built heritage is the lack of long-term sustained funding. Other barriers include the impact of climate change and weather-related events on historic buildings and sites. Demographic changes such as an ageing or more mobile population mean that historic church buildings are no longer cared for in the same way. We may need to take a different approach to how we secure their financial sustainability to ensure they are accessible and relevant to broader communities.
A longer-term strategy for the appropriate care of historic buildings, including church and cathedral buildings, is for the Government to adopt a blanket VAT exemption for repairs. This would go further than the much-valued grant as part of the LPWGS. This would have the benefits of simplicity and less bureaucracy and is possible now that the earlier constraints of EU membership on making this policy change no longer apply.
Recommendation 7: We recommend that the Government explores the reinstatement of zero-rated VAT on approved alterations to historic churches (and other listed buildings), for the environmental, heritage and social impact benefits that would bring.
5. What policies would ensure the UK workforce has the right skills to maintain our heritage assets?
Church buildings and cathedrals are un-paralleled amongst heritage assets for their collective historical, artistic, and social significance. In a small national team and in dioceses, the Church of England employs specialists with professional accreditation in heritage, conservation, archaeology, architecture, and planning, who provide guidance and specialist support on everything from structural repairs to accessible toilets, wall paintings to stained glass windows.
We also rely on the expertise and experience of the many building and heritage specialists around the country to support our work to keep our nation’s heritage assets accessible, safe, and sustainable. The skills required to conserve and maintain our buildings and the treasures within them require highly skilled conservation and craft professionals with specialist knowledge. We maintain strong links with professional bodies including the Institute of Conservation and the British Institute of Organ Studies. Architects and chartered surveyors undertake 5-year Quinquennial inspections for each of our church buildings, required to ensure they are kept in good repair, and we have close links with the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association (EASA) and the Cathedral Architects Association (CAA).
The knock-on effects of a dwindling number of heritage specialists and skilled conservation professionals may lead to loss of the knowledge needed, particularly if funding and projects are unavailable for them to continue their work. 77% of conservation professionals work in SMEs, and 61% are operating as microbusinesses (less than 10 employees) (Institute of Conservation Labour Market Intelligence Report, 2022). Any reduction in funding and projects significantly impacts on their business. This then impacts on support available for training of future generations. There are many social and economic barriers to increasing and diversifying the conservation and crafts workforce. Funding projects that build and develop sector capacity and deliver diversity can support a sustainable workforce (Institute of Conservation, Conservation Skills, Learning and Innovation report, 2020). Protecting the infrastructure of conservation education through support for alternative entry routes will help sustain the profession. Heritage skills are a unique blend of science, technology and creative skills and knowledge. Establishing parity between STEM and creative subjects in national curricula and at tertiary education levels will again help to encourage entry into the profession.
The 2023 Heritage Crafts Red List identified several critically endangered and endangered craft skills that are vital to the upkeep of our churches and cathedrals, including bell founding, encaustic tile making, parchment and vellum making, slate working and wooden instrument making. The risk of these skills dying out impacts on our ability to repair and maintain, for example, bells, historic tiled floors, and historic parchments (including the Magna Cartas in cathedrals and other internationally significant documents).
There is also a risk that many of the parish churches rely on volunteers - many of whom are ageing- and it will become even more important to upskill people in how to manage heritage assets. We work with the Government, Historic England and the wider heritage sector to help sustain the conservation, crafts and heritage skills needed to conserve our historic church buildings and their interiors, some of which are included in the annual Church of England Conservation Grants report, 2023.
The places of worship heritage sector’s infrastructure requires support to remove barriers to entry and provide opportunities for young people. Without this support, some of the skills necessary for repair of our historic buildings will be lost in our lifetime.
Recommendation 8: We recommend that the following interventions by Government in conjunction with education providers, funders, heritage institutions and SMEs would help to build and support the necessary heritage skills pipeline:
There are existing training programmes, toolkits and guidance that can provide a basis for creating new programmes or extending those that are already successful. The Church of England’s £11m Buildings for Mission programme supports 36 Church Building Support Officers (CBSOs) based around the country. Some are shared across dioceses through partnerships and three are partnered with organisations (the Association of Festival Churches, the Bat Conservation Trust and the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture in the University of York). Five of the CBSOs are based in local dioceses as apprentices on the Historic Environment Advice Assistant (level 4) Strode College (Somerset) course. The programme provides all CBSOs with professional development and ongoing learning to continue to upskill them in caring for historic church buildings. This will help to both revitalise parishes and develop a pipeline of heritage specialists to care for some of our nation’s most unique and valuable heritage assets.
The Cathedral and Church Buildings Department has just been awarded a £4.6m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, part of which will be used to develop training and skills of student and emerging conservation professionals in the care and conservation of our historic interiors. This funding boost will create opportunities to support young people developing specialist heritage skills.
In addition to tertiary programmes for historic building conservation, there are organisations and education centres that teach the preservation of craft skills, building the skills pipeline needed to support our cathedrals and church buildings. There are a range of bursary-funded training programmes which support practical skills and understanding on historic buildings and gardens.
Below are some of the skills and training programmes that are provided across the country, many of which are partnered with local organisations and/or local councils.
Growing Green skills
Recommendation 9: We encourage the Government to actively support further education providers, heritage institutions, and businesses to provide bespoke training, apprenticeships, and accreditation support to develop green/net zero skills in the heritage sector.
Conclusion
Historic church and cathedral buildings form a major part of our nation’s most significant built heritage. These buildings are at the heart of communities, sustained by a remarkable network of volunteers who care for the historic buildings and the many diverse people who use them. Church and cathedral buildings can play a major role in regeneration, economic growth and place-making through their character and heritage value, their role in tourism and volunteering, and their well-placed and fundamental support for their local communities. The Church of England does all it can to care for these buildings, yet the scale of the estate and the contribution to society is so great that there remains a pressing need for a sustained, long-term collaborative funding solution. The innovative work that happens in churches and cathedrals every day -- supporting local people in need, energetically pursuing net zero carbon, and perpetuating conservation crafts -- means historic churches are relevant to Government priorities for communities, the environment and skills. The Church of England welcomes a continued and highly collaborative role, with Government and the sector, in the future of historic churches as part of a national strategy for built heritage.
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