What the level of grant for church repairs was in each of the last three years.

I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Second Church Estates Commissioner, my hon. Friend Sir Stuart Bell.

Grants offered for repairs to places of worship under the joint scheme operated by English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund amounted to £25.6 million for 2002–03, £28.3 million for 2003–04, and £24.3 million for 2004–05.

As the Second Church Estates Commissioner would know, many of us have campaigned to have VAT on church repairs reduced. As the Chancellor of the exchequer was unable to negotiate that in Europe, it was argued that churches would be allowed to apply for a grant, which, as the Minister has told the House, was cut last year. How can it possibly help churches to give them a reduced grant when they would have been eligible for a lower interest rate if that had been negotiated, as we had hoped, through the European Union?

I have stood in for my hon. Friend on three occasions and the hon. Lady has raised that issue on every single occasion, so I am well aware that she has continued to campaign on it. Yes, there was a reduction last year, but I hope that she will join the Bishop of London in applauding the commitment that the Government have made for additional funds to help with public memorials, which fill so many of our churches and cathedrals. I hope she will also be happy that in my capacity as a Minister at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, I intend to convene a forum in December to discuss English Heritage funding for cathedrals and, in particular, rural churches, with the Churches.

It is lovely that we are going to have a forum, but I think that a little cash might be more use.

Is it not clear that mediaeval buildings, many of which form the centrepieces of our villages and towns, require not only constant maintenance but skilled and extremely expensive maintenance? English Heritage insists on high standards of special materials and skills. Please can we have some rapid action?

My hon. Friend is right: that is why we give English Heritage a grant of £130 million and have made extra funding available this year, particularly to support skills training right across the heritage sector. Stonemasons in particular need support; we need to see the apprentices coming through. That is precisely the sort of issue that I hope to discuss with the Church community over the coming weeks and months.

The Minister will know that the English Heritage annual audit shows that £163 million is needed just for basic repairs to churches in England alone. If he is giving £25 million a year for that, that is clearly far less than what is needed. Will the Minister therefore give thought to how much more money his Department could extract from the Treasury for parish churches, not only as places of worship, but as an essential part of rural England and our rural heritage? This is a heritage issue, and if work is not done now, churches will fall still further into disrepair.

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough has said in this House on a number of occasions how grateful he is for state support. The approximately £25 million that I referred to a few moments ago is in relation to cathedral spend, but the hon. Gentleman is right that rural churches are a particular issue. The Church is in discussion about how to make best use of rural churches and about provision for their maintenance. The hon. Gentleman will also be aware of the heritage protection review that the Government have announced.