Places of Worship

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 11:17 am on 17 May 2006.

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Photo of David Lammy David Lammy Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) (Culture) 11:17, 17 May 2006

I thank Tony Baldry for securing this debate. It is not often that we hear the poet laureate quoted in full in the hallowed corridors of Westminster, and we are all grateful. This is, as the hon. Gentleman will know, an issue of great importance to me, both as the Minister with responsibility for culture and on a personal level.

Let me start by making it clear that the Government fully recognise the importance of our historic churches. Historic places of worship are an invaluable part of this nation's heritage. They represent the finest of our historic buildings and are showpieces of the most accomplished design and workmanship. From Canterbury cathedral, to the Shah Jehan mosque in Woking, or the historic Cheltenham synagogue, they help to tell the story of this country in a way that no other group of buildings can, and they are a vital part of teaching us about who we are and where wecome from.

Beyond that, historic places of worship host an array of vital services that are often forgotten, ranging from nursery groups and lunch clubs for the elderly in our communities, to many sporting activities after school and on weekends for our young people. They can only do that thanks to the armies of volunteers attached to churches. The Church of England alone constitutes the largest voluntary organisation in the country and is present in every part of England. With that importance in mind, the Government have in place a range of policies and funding designed to support our historic places of worship.

We ensure the protection of historic churches through the listing system. More than 45 per cent. of grade I listed buildings are churches. The heritage protection reforms that we intend to introduce in the coming years will make that protection system work more effectively for owners, managers and users of those buildings. We provide substantial funding to contribute to the upkeep of historic places of worship. Funding already in place from Government and lottery sources will total around £60 million this year.

As the hon. Gentleman knows, congregations carry the large burden of dealing with the repair bills of our parish churches for leaky roofs, broken windows, repointing and so on. That is why we created a unique scheme to tackle the problem: the listed places of worship grant scheme. A unique scheme within the heritage sector funding system, it returns the VAT paid on repairs to listed places of worship. Approximately 8,000 churches have benefited and more than£43 million has been paid out since 2001 to those churches. The scheme provides an average of £1 million a month to support those churches and it is important that that is on the record. In the Budget, the Chancellor announced that the scheme would continue until 2011 and would be extended to cover professional fees and repairs to clocks, pews, bells and organs. That extension and extensions to the linked memorials grant scheme mean that £70 million of new money has been committed.

Alongside that targeted help on VAT, another major part of the funding that is already in place is the joint repair scheme for places of worship operated by English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund. That scheme is worth around £25 million this year, and with this year's grant has paid almost £90 million since it began. This year, the repair scheme will, for example, enable St. Mary's, Tunstead in Norfolk to repair its magnificent 15th century arch-braced roof: £136,000 has been offered as a grant.

In addition, my Department provides £3 million a year to support the Churches Conservation Trust, which looks after the finest of the churches that are no longer needed for regular worship. The trust does an excellent job of conserving the 335 historic churches in its care and is increasingly giving consideration to how its churches can be opened up for greater use by local communities.

English Heritage gives £1 million a year for cathedral repairs. The £40 million given under the scheme since 2001 has seen a major backlog of repairs in our cathedrals all but eradicated. In addition, the Heritage Lottery Fund puts more money into churches for repairs, new works, conservation, treasures and events. Including its contribution to the joint scheme, the HLF has put £300 million into church and cathedral buildings since 1994. Approximately 9 per cent. of all the money given by the HLF goes to our historic churches and faith buildings.

Our support for historic places of worship is not only about the heritage protection system and direct funding. It is about trying to reflect the needs of those buildings in wider Government policy making. That is why my colleagues in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been looking at the contribution that faith buildings make to community cohesion in rural areas. Funding such as the £12.5 million faith communities capacity funding is in place to support churches and to empower local people. All of that will help to keep those buildings alive and in use.

I hope that the hon. Gentleman agrees that, by any analysis, that is a substantial package of support and one of which the Government should be proud. Of course, there is always more to be done and the hon. Gentleman highlighted English Heritage's "Inspired!" campaign that was launched last week. English Heritage's research is extremely valuable and improves our knowledge of the state of repair of our national church buildings. The hon. Gentleman will have seen, for example, that the diocese of Oxford has been shown to have a large number of churches in need, although that diocese also has the most churches of all the dioceses in England. That information is enormously helpful and we would like that sort of approach to be taken with a wider range of historic buildings.

We also welcome the English Heritage pilot studies and capacity-building activities, both planned and ongoing, which will help to inform debate in the coming years and show whether funding is appropriately targeted. As English Heritage's work makes clear, we need an effective partnership between Government, church denominations, heritage specialists and the public.

The challenge facing us is not small. Church buildings' estimated repair need is considerable. As I said, we are helping the churches to meet that challenge through a comprehensive package of funding; but we need to move forward and we must do so together. Our assistance can only be partly about money. It is also about giving church organisations access to support networks and advice at national, regional and local levels. The hon. Gentleman will appreciate that too many congregations remain isolated from that information and advice. We need to improve our knowledge of what works to keep churches in use, and consider innovative ways to keep churches as living buildings in their communities. "Inspired!" will help towards that.

It is clear that although some dioceses and parishes are able to spread good practice and move forward, to maintain their buildings and move forward, and to apply for grants from English Heritage or the Heritage Lottery Fund and move forward, others remain more isolated, have less capacity, and are less able to do that. We must tackle that problem together.