Historic UK churches face uncertain future as funding deadline approaches
Almost 1000 religious buildings across Britain need urgent repairs while facing serious money problems. Tax relief program that helped thousands of historic churches might end soon‚ putting more buildings at risk
In a troubling development‚ Britains religious heritage is showing signs of decay - with 969 historic worship places now listed as at-risk buildings. The National Churches Trust points out that 53 more structures joined the danger list this past year (which includes everything from grand cathedrals to small chapels)
Over the last decade about 3‚500 churches stopped working‚ and the situation might get worse if Rachel Reeves changes the tax-relief rules. A group of 36 Conservative MPs and church-related people sent a letter asking to keep the old tax break system going
The tax program (which has been helping since early 2000s) saves religious buildings from paying VAT on fix-up work; it gives back between £25 million and £40 million yearly. Sir Philip Rutnam‚ who leads the National Churches Trust says our priceless church heritage faces big problems now
The money situation looks real bad: Church of England needs more than £1 billion for repairs‚ with yearly costs hitting £150 million. Places that need help most are spread across the country:
- Lincolnshire and Shropshire
- Devon and Cornwall
- Central London parts
- Manchester areas
- East Midlands region
Some buildings are in real trouble - like St Philip and St James Church in Ilfracombe where the main window is breaking down; water gets inside the walls. Norwichʼs Catholic Cathedral got added to the danger list too. More than half of English MPs have troubled churches in their areas‚ including Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch
