Committee publication · Correspondence · 24 July 2025
Letter from Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Committee Chair, to Baroness Twycross, Minster for Gambling and Heritage regading Protecting Built Heritage: Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, dated 24 July 2025
From: Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Inquiry: Protecting built heritage
Summary
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee writes to the Minister for Gambling and Heritage expressing concern about the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme's lack of permanence and a recent cap on individual claims of £25,000. The committee calls for the scheme to be made permanent and the cap removed, citing evidence that uncertainty deters projects and that the cap affects even routine maintenance work, with over 200 churches and cathedrals already impacted.
Key findings
- 45% of the UK's Grade I buildings are owned by the Church of England, and churches provide essential communal spaces for social and charitable activities.
- Short-term funding guarantees discourage projects that take five years to prepare and fundraise for, as applicants cannot reliably count on the scheme's future support.
- The Government's £25,000 annual cap on individual claimants affects over 200 of 260 cathedrals and churches beginning or undertaking projects, including 40 projects of £2 million or more.
- The cap impacts not only major projects but also standard maintenance works such as roofing, which can breach the threshold.
- Churches forced to re-evaluate programmes under the cap may either fail to fundraise sufficiently or let contractors and communities down.
Tone
CriticalTopics
Key actors
Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Baroness Twycross, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Church of England, Rev. Paula Griffiths, Historic Religious Buildings Alliance, Anthony Grimshaw Associates
Notable line
“… if a church has to concentrate purely on fundraising and keeping the rain out, it cannot fulfil its wider purpose.”
Key Quotes
“… if a church has to concentrate purely on fundraising and keeping the rain out, it cannot fulfil its wider purpose. It cannot work with its congregation; it cannot work with its community in the way it has the potential to do”
“… projects take so long to plan, fundraise for and get permissions for, so if people know that [the scheme] is going to be done on a year-by-year basis and that they will always be waiting to hear, I think the number of projects will drop off”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗