An Absurd Situation

With bated breath, we await the autumn budget on 26 November. We fear the financial support mechanisms for historic places of worship will be even further eroded. 

Since April, when the Government decided to cap and cut the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, we've found ourselves in an absurd situation: in the UK, you could demolish a church VAT-free, but if you wanted to repair that church, you would have to pay VAT. Of course, there are qualifications to that - what you do with the land after demolition, and the total cost of the repairs - but to me, this clearly sets the tone for what this Government values. Development is prized higher than heritage. Historic churches are the poor relation.

This was reinforced in June, when plans to cut DCMS's budget by 1.4% were revealed, and in recent articles such as Does Britain value culture any more? and Labour's war on heritage.

But it goes further than this. In November, Historic England published the results of their annual Heritage at Risk register. More than 20% of all heritage at risk in England are places of worship. That's 968 buildings. Reduced capital grants since 2017 means that annually, more places of worship are added to this register than are being removed. Before 2017, on average about 100 places of worship were removed from the list each year for positive reasons. Since then, that number has dropped to about 30 per year. In Wales, Cadw do not publish their heritage at risk register.

The Government's 2025 cap on the VAT a place of worship can reclaim will only plunge more of our historic faith buildings into decline and decay. All year, our sector has been lobbying hard for the full reinstatement of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, let's see what 26 November brings. We hope the Government won't turn its back on churches.

We are a small, hard-working charity, that has to raise almost all of its income from donations, subscriptions and grants, and so far this year, we have taken eight redundant places of worship into our care. We pride ourselves on creating big, juicy, interesting projects, employing local craftspeople and contractors, and returning these buildings to their community and their landscape with a secure future. Historic churches, chapels and meeting houses are part of the warp and weft of this country. As well as the numerous public benefits many offer, they are some of our most spectacular, numinous, transporting places. Relief on VAT would be a small but meaningful start in restoring balance to the nation's values.