JANUARY 2026.
URGENT AND IMPORTANT.
ACT NOW TO SAVE THIS NATIONAL GRANT SCHEME.
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The Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme is a lifeline for historic churches, saving them 20 per cent on repair costs. But the future of this important scheme is now uncertain, which is having a devastating impact across the country. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport now has to make a decision on whether it will fund the scheme or not past March 2026. We need your help to ensure the future of the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme.
What can you do?
You can help us make the case for the future of the scheme by writing about it to your MP. If you have done so, please write again now that the Spending Review has concluded. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been given its budget for the next few years will now be making the decision on the future of The Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme. Letters of support for the scheme will make a huge difference, so please write if you are able to.
Based in Scotland? You could make twice the impact by writing to your MSP as well as your MP. These letters can be very similar and you will just have to change references to MP to MSP, and add the address for the Scottish Parliament: Holyrood, Edinburgh, EH99 1SP.
Tips for writing or emailing your MP
- Please personalise the template as much as you can. You might want to mention your local church or others that are important to you and why. For example, you could mention the different ways you interact with different churches. Maybe you volunteer at one or plan your holidays around visiting churches. Or you might attend parent and toddler groups or other community activities there, drop off food for the food bank or attend worship or concert nights.
- For MPs, use their local constituency office address or: the House of Commons, London SW1A 2TT.
- Make sure to include your address as MPs will only read and respond to people in their constituency.
Here is a letter template about the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme that you can send to your MP
Dear [Name of your MP],
I am writing to you about the future of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS), a scheme which allows listed places of worship (of all faiths) across the UK to reclaim the VAT that they pay on repairs.
This Scheme was introduced in its current form by Gordon Brown in 2004 because he was concerned about the impact of changes to VAT on the future of these buildings and what happens inside them. The cost of the Scheme is typically £25-40 million a year, which forms part of Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)'s budget, but this is money that helps keep places of worship open, in use and helping local communities.
As you know in January the budget for the scheme was reduced by almost half to £23 million and it will come to an end in March 2026. There was also a cap introduced, so that any place of worship could only claim back up to £25,000 - even if their VAT bill was higher. This has left churches across the country now facing a huge shortfall in their repair costs.
Now that DCMS has its settlement for the next three years, it is crucial that a decision can be taken on the future of the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme so that churches are not left in limbo.
[Insert mention of your local church here and why it is an important local building ]
I very much hope that as my MP you can raise this issue with Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who is supportive of the Scheme.
Already uncertainty about the future of The Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme is making it difficult for churches to plan and budget for future repairs. Churches now are effectively having to pay tax on repairs to listed churches, chapels, mosques, meeting houses, temples, and synagogues. In comparison, building a new place of worship is tax-exempt.
This is making projects 20% more expensive—for local volunteers this is an enormous burden. These buildings are mostly funded by local people. The Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme has been the only consistent form of funding for these buildings - and this is just a VAT reclaim scheme.
- The scale of the buildings maintained in this way is astonishing. There are about 38,500 Christian places of worship in the UK - and of course many more from other faiths. These buildings represent an extraordinary resource that reaches every community. By comparison the UK has just 3,600 public libraries and 7,900 GP surgeries.
- These buildings form by far the biggest base for voluntary activity in the UK. There is voluntary activity of just about every kind: youth groups, groups for parents and toddlers, for people who are elderly, lonely or vulnerable. The sheer scale of this activity, and its local nature, means it is regularly taken for granted, but there are many examples in your constituency.
- At the same time, these buildings account for nearly half of the UK's most important historic buildings (Grade I or equivalent), as well as by far the nation’s largest art collections (sculpture, stained glass, wall paintings, vernacular art etc). Around 20,000 places of worship are listed, and church buildings form a vital part of the identity of the UK's landscape and townscape for tens of thousands of communities
The National Churches Trust The House of Good research shows that church buildings contribute £55 billion a year in social and economic good through the community activities and services hosted and ran in their buildings. There is no doubt that ending the scheme or by keeping the cap of £25,000 would tip many buildings over the edge. Many could fall into greater disrepair and close all together. Community activities would be stopped.
Evidence of this can be seen in the financial crisis that is already affecting church buildings: the Church of England alone has a backlog of repairs to parish churches estimated at over £1 billion, and large-scale closures are sweeping churches in Scotland and Wales.
I hope very much that you can make the case on my behalf to have the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme made permanent and have its cap removed.
Yours Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
REPOSTED FROM THE NATIONAL CHURCHES TRUST.
Annual General Meeting and Brochure Collection Spring 2025
You have just received, or may receive in the next few weeks, the new “Guide to Shropshire’s Churches”, which we think is a great production and one we can be proud of. We have printed 30,000 copies which we need to share with anyone and everyone. This will hopefully attract even more visitors to our churches. Ensure that you always have some available in your building, and ask us if you need more. Is there anywhere else in your area which would welcome copies, the village shop and garage, WI meeting and Mother’s Union meetings, on every other seat at a church concert etc.? Do not be shy in asking, as we have found that people like its excellent front cover and its very professional look.
Can you let the executive group that keeps SCTG working have another named contact for your church (and others in your group too) It would help us to be more efficient, and we have no intention of sending you emails more than a couple of times a year. It would also help the distribution of the Newsletters which we produce 3 or 4 times a year. Email: sctgoffice@gmail.com
We would love another couple of people to join the executive group. We have a reasonable spread across the county, except in the North East. But we will welcome any willing person. Email: sctgoffice@gmail.com
What are you doing for your visitors? If you go to the website and choose Resources you will find ideas and suggestions on how to make your building as welcoming as possible. www.discovershropshirechurches.co.uk/resources
Coach trips and Church Trails
SCTG is running a coach trip in May..It was initiated by the local history group of Shrewsbury U3A (University of 3rd Age). Your executive has organised a day visiting 4 member churches, called “Opening up Shropshire’s Anglo-Saxon Past”. There may be a small number of seats left on 2nd May.
We would like to organise some other days out visiting our churches, but we need to know if your church/es would welcome this. Please contact sctgoffice@gmail.com if your church would like to be involved in the future. We would also like to know if enough of you are interested in booking a seat on an SCTG coach trip?
Church Trails can be developed via co-ordination between members and your executive. The idea is to guide visitors around a number of buildings in a given area. Visitors may be from outside Shropshire or from another part of the county with an urge to explore.
NEWSLETTER WINTER 2024/5
OUR FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS
SCTG is in a very healthy position. We are always careful with you subscriptions which are the backbone of the group, but we have been fortunate to have received some money from the end of the HLF project. This means we will be able to keep the cost of membership down three years from now and probably the one after. Our problem is us, the executive group that keeps SCTG up and running. We need new blood. The current 6 people that make up the group have a cumulative age of over nearly 400 years and without Richard, our youngest member, our average age would be 78. We cannot live forever and some might like to stand down, but we need new members to keep going.
The job is not difficult and the work is shared. We have a reliable treasurer, a great Chair and a secretary who is always full of ideas, but we need to move on. We need two or three people to join us. We meet 5 or 6 times a year, often at Shrewsbury Cathedral. We do move around if it suits us. We are all scattered across the County. We meet for lunch before our meetings so it is social as well as businesslike. If we cannot attract anyone then this could be the last brochure you pick up and that would be very sad. But we are putting this to you now, being realistic about the situation if no-one comes forward. As it says at the beginning, the future of SCTG is in your hands.
Annual General Meeting
Our AGM is planned for 27th March, in the Bradbury Room at Meole Brace Church which is outside the town centre of Shrewsbury and has parking. You will be able to pick up your new brochures which will be available for the next 3 years 2025/2026/2027. There will be plenty to see, tips for your building, what can SCTG do for you and what can you do for SCTG?
Your church should have received a copy of your entry in the new brochure. Please would you make sure this has been checked for accuracy, If you want to change anything, please let us know before 31st December if possible.
sctgoffice@gmail.com
How To Be An Open Church
https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/campaign/our-updates/how-be-open-church At the online page above you will find an article “how to be an open church” which is well worth reading. There are other ‘blogs’ here you will find useful too. Take a look.
LETTER TO MEMBERS, 22.9.23
Dear Member
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Preparation for our next booklet, “A Guide to Shropshire’s Churches’ will start in the Autumn of 2024.
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Before we can plan for that, we will need to collect your subscription so that we have the money to pay for it.
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This is the time when Parish Church Councils are setting their budgets, so we ask that you will set aside £60 to cover your membership for 2024, 2025 and 2026.
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We must receive your £60 this financial year to ensure your place in the next booklet. The current one has been extremely successful and highly praised.
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You will notice that despite inflation and the rising cost of printing, paper and transport, we are only asking the same as for the past several years.
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We are dependent on new recruiting new members to keep the costs down, so if you are in contact with other churches in Shropshire or on the borders, please encourage them to join.
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Bank details:-Account name: Shropshire Churches Tourism Group.
Sort Code: 20-77-85 Account number 3332 8651.
Or cheque payable to Shropshire Churches Tourism Group. Please send to
David Hardham, Treasurer SCTG, Upper Knolls Farm, Minsterley, Shrewsbury. SY5 0NL.
David’s phone 01588 650362; our email: <sctgoffice@gmail.com>.
Please add your name, church and contact email/phone number so we know who you are. Or you can pay via our website
‘www.
Thank you for your continuing membership. Our aim is to bring visitors into our churches, and don’t forget, “A happy visitor is a generous visitor!”
Best wishes
Anne Pilsbury
Chair, Shropshire Churches Tourism Group
The big news is our new web design. We hope you like it.
We are indebted to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the re-design, and in particular to Jenny Beard, leader of the 'Virtuous Circles' church tourism project and member of Herefordshire Churches Tourism Group. Sadly, Jenny died recently, and will be sadly missed by all who knew her.
Other News:-
Now that our brochure is going to last for three years instead of two, it is important that you keep an eye on your stock, and if you need more, let us know and we will get some delivered to you. We are making a big effort at the moment to get supplies delivered to everyone who needs them, so if we contact you, please get back to us.