Labour savaged as 976 UK church buildings and cathedrals at ‘risk’ | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Labour has been advised to revive an important scheme to its full capability as a few of the UK’s historic church buildings stay in danger. Friends of Friendless Churches urged Rachel Reeves to do away with a cap to the listed locations for worship grant scheme, which gave reduction to locations of worship on their VAT payments. It stated in a video on-line: “In the UK, you could demolish a church VAT-free. But if you wanted to repair that church, you would have to pay VAT.”

It added: “This is such an absurd situation that we find ourselves in, so we are desperately hoping that later this month, when the Budget is announced, the Government will restore that scheme to its full capacity.” On April 1 2025, a brand new annual cap of £25,000 per listed place of worship was carried out. In a weblog submit, Friends of Friendless Churches added that the established order “clearly sets the tone for what this Government values”, in that growth is “prized higher than heritage” and historic church buildings are handled because the “poor relation”.

Marcus Walker, a Church of England clergyman within the Diocese of London, wrote on X: “Every time a church goes through the massive effort of fundraising to repair the fabric of a listed building they are saving a piece of Britain’s heritage without the Government having to lift a finger. The least the Government can do is not charge us VAT on top.”

It comes as 976 church buildings, chapels, assembly homes and cathedrals are included on Historic England’s Heritage At Risk Register.

Sir Philip Rutnam, Chair of the National Churches Trust, stated earlier this month: “These statistics should be an alarm bell for the Government – now is the moment to act to save these important buildings before they fall even more into disrepair.

“Once these buildings are gone, they are gone forever. There is no second chance to rescue them.

“The fact that all the political parties have numerous buildings at risk in their constituencies shows that this is a cross-party issue – something they can unite on.”

The Government says it has prolonged the grant scheme till March 31, 2026, with a funds of £23million.

“This will proceed to allow non secular organisations to assert grants overlaying eligible VAT prices paid in the direction of repairs and renovations,” officials say on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) website.

“To make sure the scheme stays inside funds, a brand new cap can be launched, limiting the overall quantity of any particular person place of worship can declare to £25,000 within the coming 12 months.

“Places of worship can make more than one claim, but the total of their claims should not exceed £25,000.”