Memorandum submitted by the Historic Churches
Preservation Trust
The Historic Churches Preservation Trust (HCPT)
is the country's leading non-denominational charity providing
funding for repairs to places of worship. Our comments on the
various issues listed in the briefing note are:
— Places of worship represent 45% of
Grade I and 29% of Grade II* listed buildings. They are clearly
the single most important priority, as a class of building, for
the forthcoming Heritage White Paper.
Under current trends in patterns of worship, Churches
are finding it increasingly difficult to manage and fund their
buildings. Furthermore, the primary role of Churches is that of
mission, not the upkeep of historic building.
It is urgent, therefore, that new ways be found to
supplement the managing and funding these buildings.
— The DCMS and English Heritage are
currently ill equipped. They are under-resourced in both staff
and financial terms and as a result their role is essentially
re-active.
A particular weakness is their lack of adequate up
to date information about the 15,000 or so listed places of worship.
— All studies show that church buildings
represent important cultural assets for the entire community.
They should not be considered reserved only for those that use
them for worship. The HCPT encourages churches to kept open.
— The joint EH / HLF repair scheme
distributes £25 million annually. The HLF also provide money
for places of worship that fulfil tourist or educational criteria.
£8 million of VAT on church repairs is also
recovered annually under the LPOW scheme.
The HLF has, over its 10 years of existence, distributed
around 10% of its giving (around £300 million) to places
of worship but this proportion is declining.
Needs are unknown but may be of the order of £150
million annually.
Current funding for places of worship in Britain
is substantially lower than that provided either by the state
or via taxation in other European countries. It has also been
declining in real terms. It needs to be increased substantially.
Spending needs to be better allocated with greater priority being
given to essential maintenance.
— The roles of the various actors in
managing historic places of worship must be made to evolve.
While many church buildings are well managed, others
are not. Ways need to be found to identify churches that need
management assistance and then to provide support.
Ways also need to be found to build up a reliable
national database of information about church buildings.
English Heritage and the HLF have key roles to play
here, as do non-governmental organisations such as ourselves.
However, the long-term future of these buildings also requires
the commitment of the local non-church going community and structured
use of outside volunteer resources. How these are to be obtained
is not clear.
— The management of historic buildings
such as churches requires technical competence. In the Church
of England this is provided by the church architect, the quinquennial
and DAC review. The principle weakness of the current system is
not the shortage of professional advice; it is the lack of resources
to carry out the ensuing recommendations.
We are not in a position to judge the adequacy of
supply of professional conservationists, but are concerned by
the number of projects being delayed due to lack of skilled contractors.
26 January 2006
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