{"id":17111,"date":"2026-01-26T01:43:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T01:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=17111"},"modified":"2026-01-26T01:43:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T01:43:31","slug":"government-announces-92m-fund-to-support-historic-places-of-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=17111","title":{"rendered":"Government announces \u00a392m fund to support historic places of worship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The Grade II listed His Place Community Church, Hastings, dates back to 1885 and features a superb horseshoe gallery that can seat 700 people. It received a \u00a327,000 grant from the National Churches’ Trust to fund urgent repairs to its tower.<\/span>\u00a0(Photo: National Churches Trust)<\/span><\/p>\n

The government has announced plans to invest \u00a31.5 billion into historic buildings in England at the risk of closure, a significant portion of which will go towards places of worship.<\/p>\n

The funds will be distributed over a five-year period and are aimed at restoring \u201cnational pride in community assets\u201d. Just over half of the funding (\u00a3760 million) will go towards museums struggling with maintenance costs. Significant funds have also been committed to libraries and creative arts projects.<\/p>\n

As part of the project the government said it had earmarked \u00a392 million for a Places of Worship Renewal Fund. The government said this fund would replace the existing Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, which is currently worth \u00a323 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Places of worship will also be able to apply to a separate \u00a375 million fund for repairs and conservation of \u201cat-risk\u201d historic buildings, and a \u00a346 million Heritage Revival Fund to help communities “take control of and look after local heritage and bring buildings back into public use”.<\/p>\n

It comes as churches prepare to lose VAT exemption on repairs from April, which critics have warned will jeopardise maintenance and restoration projects and significantly add to costs.<\/p>\n

Emily Gee, Director for Cathedral and Church buildings for the Church of England, broadly welcomed the news but expressed concerns about the abolition of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.<\/p>\n

In a statement, she said, “We\u00a0warmly\u00a0welcome the\u00a0Government\u2019s Places of Worship Renewal Fund\u00a0and the certainty of\u00a0this investment\u00a0in repairs and improvements for eligible parish\u00a0and cathedral church buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that the Church was also pleased by the government\u2019s recognition of the wide range of spiritual, cultural, historical and social benefits that churches bring to their local communities.<\/p>\n

“However we are very concerned that the end of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme – after more than 20 years – will mean added pressure on local fundraisers and inevitably a drain on other sources of funding. We will work with the wider sector and the Government to see how that burden can be alleviated,” she continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We look forward to seeing the details and working out what it means in practice for the Church of England\u2019s 12,500 listed church buildings.<\/p>\n

“We will continue to work closely with other church buildings\u2019\u202fcharities and funders, Historic England and other denominations and faiths, as well as the Government, in this important period of transition.”<\/p>\n

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, who announced the scheme, said the programme would \u201ckeep the doors open and the lights on\u201d in thousands of local institutions which are \u201cpart of who we are as a nation\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Grade II listed His Place Community Church, Hastings, dates back to 1885 and features a superb horseshoe gallery that can seat 700 people. It received a \u00a327,000 grant from the National Churches’ Trust to fund urgent repairs to its tower.\u00a0(Photo: National Churches Trust) The government has announced plans to invest \u00a31.5 billion into historic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5391,514,1824,210,2645,547,65,591],"class_list":["post-17111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-92m","tag-announces","tag-fund","tag-government","tag-historic","tag-places","tag-support","tag-worship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}