Places of worship of any Christian denomination and age can apply now for grants of up to £10,000 to help with urgent and essential maintenance and repair projects costing up to £80,000.
Grants can also be used for project development – developing a church building project such as feasibility studies, options appraisals, investigative work and development work up to RIBA Planning Stage 1.
Match funding of at least 50% is required.
Applications will be considered from listed and unlisted Christian places of worship across the UK.
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.
Under the small grants programme, the maximum grant available was £5,000 for projects costs of up to £20,000.