Department for Culture Media and Sport
We are responsible for managing the Government’s interests in historic places of worship.
This covers four main areas:
For further information, including an application form, please visit the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme website, or call 0845 601 5945.
The LPW Grant Scheme budget for claims in 2011/12 is £7.081m. This will be allocated for payments as follows:
| Period ending | Applications to be received by | Queries to be cleared by | Payments to be made on or around | Total funding for the period (to include administration) |
| 30 September 2011 | 30 September 2011 | 6 October 2011 | 14 October 2011 | £3.58 million |
| 31 December 2011 | 30 December 2011 | 6 January 2012 | 16 January 2012 | £1.75 million |
| 31 March 2012 | 30 March 2012 | 5 April 2012 | 19 April 2012 | £1.75 million |
These figures include grant assessment and processing costs, project monitoring costs and IT development.
Background to 2011/2012 funding
In October 2010 we announced a number of saving measures for the LPW grant scheme. In consultation with the church bodies, we agreed to return the scheme to its original scope of eligibility which would come into effect on the 4 January 2011.
As part of the Spending Review announcements later in October 2010, we announced that the LPW grant scheme would continue in the next spending period with a fixed annual budget of around £12m per year and that a mechanism would need to be found to ensure that the scheme stays within budget. The restrictions on scope of eligibility announced earlier in October 2010 would also apply for the next spending review period.
The announcement of a fixed budget to the scheme together with the restrictions on the scope of eligibility led to a vast surge in claims submitted in 2010/11. We were obliged to meet all the eligible claims made in 2010/11 and had to find a solution to meet the demand.
The LPW grant scheme benefited from extra funding from other Departmental budgets from 2010/11 to meet this demand but we could not expect other budgets to meet the total cost and the LPW grant scheme needed to make a contribution to this. We therefore brought forward some of the funding from the 2011/12 budget to meet these excess claims. In total, £23m was used to clear the 2010/11 claims which was much more than ever spent before on a single year’s claims. The £7.081m figure reflects the LPW budget for 2011/12 minus the funding used to clear last year’s claims.
The measures we have introduced this year will ensure that the scheme does not overspend in the future.
How the Listed Place of Worship Grant scheme will operate from 2011/12 onwards
We designed a mechanism for the LPW grant scheme to operate within its fixed budget from 2011/12 onwards in consultation with the Church of England and other faith organisations. We sought a solution which is as easy to administer as possible, is fair, and which achieves the widest possible spread of benefit.
In March 2011, we announced that the new scheme would operate with quarterly fixed budgets with payments made once a quarter and the payable rate will be depend on the value of eligible claims received in that quarter with each claim attracting a fair pro-rata payment. This will work as follows:
We are due to make the first payments on the scheme on or around 14 October 2011. We will not be able to calculate the pro-rata rate of return until all claims for the period April to September have been assessed. All successful claimants will be advised of the rate of return when they receive payment on or around the 14 October 2011. We will also publish the rate of return and how this figure was calculated on the LPW website at the same time.
Further information on how to apply to the scheme can be found on the LPW Scheme website.
Church buildings of certain denominations are exempt from local authority listed building and conservation area controls, on account of systems of control within the denominations which are accepted as providing equivalent protection for buildings.
This applies to six denominations in England and Wales:
Additionally, listed Church of Scotland churches situated in England are exempt.
Denominational systems of control must meet the requirements of our code of practice, which is an annex to our guidance on the exemption. The current Ecclesiastical Exemption Order should be considered alongside the later amendment order.
A consultation on changes to the Ecclesiatical Exemption was carried out in 2010. As a result, changes were made to the Ecclesiastical Exemption Order, which provided that, except in a few special cases,, buildings are only exempt where they are covered by a denominational system of control. This means that shared churches which are listed buildings, and listed chapels forming part of institutions such as schools, colleges, universities, prisons and hospitals are only exempt where they have opted to be covered by a denominational system of control. If no such election has been made, local authority listed building controls apply.
Additionally, separately listed curtilage structures of exempt listed places of worship (for example, a listed church hall or monument) are now also exempt from local authority listed buildings controls where they are covered by a denominational system of control, and where they constitute ecclesiastical buildings for the time being in use for ecclesiastical purposes.
The Department, along with the Treasury, Communities and Local Government, Defra, the Office of the Third Sector in Cabinet Office and the Church of England published ‘Churches and Faith Buildings; Realising the Potential’, which celebrated the contribution made to communities by faith groups and their buildings, and explored the funds available to make buildings fit for purpose in delivering services in communities.