Church Of England Wants Taxpayers to Prop It Up To the Tune Of £340 Million

The Church of England has asked the Government to contribute nearly £350 million, ostensibly to the upkeep of its church buildings. The proposal has been submitted to the Treasury and other government departments.

The C of E is asking for the money to be paid over five years through an extension of the existing Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS) under which VAT refunds on repair work can be claimed.

The C of E has 16,000 churches. Forty-five per cent of all listed buildings are C of E churches, and all 42 cathedrals are listed. The Church makes the claim that 86 per cent of the adult population went into a church last year.

The funding requested would, the Church says, be “directed straight to the heart of the local churches and communities which bear the responsibility for each of these buildings”. Such weighting would also “provide a strong impetus for PCCs to ensure their assets were genuinely and actively used by the whole community, helping develop civil society”.

Terry Sanderson, vice president of the National Secular Society, said: “Preserving our architectural heritage is a worthy aim, but this goes far beyond that, demanding money for all churches whether they are beautiful mediaeval buildings or monstrous 1960s breeze-block horror. And is there any guarantee that it is going to be only spent on the fabric of the buildings and not used to promote religion? I saw one church was putting in a bid for a large-screen TV so that people at the back could see the vicar preaching. That is to do with proselytising, not heritage protection. This government, with its pious PM and even more religious chancellor, will almost certainly accede to this request, and the taxpayer will once again foot the bill to keep this dying and unwanted institution on its feet. If such an enormous amount of money is to be given to the Church, it must be ring-fenced for heritage purposes only and carefully monitored.”