New Funding for Churches in the UK

The National Churches Trust supports church and chapel buildings open for worship throughout the UK. It funds urgent repairs and modernisation, provides expert advice on church maintenance and on how churches can continue to serve local communities and promote church heritage and tourism.

The National Churches Trust has launched the first grant of its new grants programme in line with the Trust’s new strategy for 2019-2023.

The funding is for projects which can demonstrate how they meet the outcome in line with the new strategy:

• Preserving heritage.
• Promoting sustainability.
• Inspiring support.

The Cornerstone Grants programme offers grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 to support structural repairs and maintenance issues costing more than £100,000, including VAT.

Projects that introduce kitchens and accessible toilets to enable increased community use, costed at more than £30,000 including VAT, will also be considered.

Please note that grants will cover up to 50% of the project costs.

Places of worship of any denomination and age can apply. Applications will be considered from listed and unlisted Christian places of worship across the UK.

Applications from the Trust’s priority areas are encouraged: North East England, Northern Ireland and Wales, though this is not to the exclusion of churches in other areas.

To be eligible, applicants must demonstrate that:

• The building is a Christian place of worship (but not a cathedral) within the UK, and open for at least six services of public worship each year.
• They own the building or have the right to carry out the work. If the church is not part of a major denomination, then the denomination must be registered with Churches Together in Britain and Ireland or have charitable status.
• The place of worship was built as a place of worship originally and is more than 30 years old.
• The works must be to the main church building either directly part of the building or attached to it.
• The building is open to the public for a minimum of 100 days a year beyond worship use or it will be following project completion.
• They have already raised at least 50% of the total project cost.
• The project is being led by a qualified professional, with conservation accreditation from a recognised institution if it is a listed building.
• Have all the necessary permissions approved and in place before applying, including permissions from their governing body and local planning authority if planning permission and/or listed building consent is also required.

Please note that as the Trust relies on donations, it has a limited amount of funding available.

The first set of deadlines for applications are 5 November 2018, 4 March 2019 and 1 July 2019.

For more information, click here National Churches Trust