The National Secular Society (NSS) has drawn attention to the way in which some religious organisations hold their hands out for taxpayers’ money to help them maintain their buildings rather than use their own financial resources.
In a submission to the government the Society drew particular attention to the wealthy Church of England which has an endowment fund of about £10bn. Its comments on the state church are worth reporting at length.
“The NSS highlighted (to the government) that the Church Commissioners for England, which manages the Church of England’s finances, oversees an endowment fund of around £10 billion that was originally established to provide support for parishes. The CofE holds billions in diocese, cathedral and parish church councils.
Yet according to the Commissioners’ 2023 annual report, only £153 million was spent on ‘supporting dioceses and the local church’. Just £9.2 million of this appeared to be directed towards repairs to churches.
In contrast, £38 million was allocated to the Church’s ‘Diocesan Investment Programme’, the primary focus of which is to ‘develop mission’ and promote evangelism.
The Commissioners also spent several million on maintaining bishops’ and archbishops’ housing and office premises.
The NSS said the Church’s ‘significant’ financial resource should be utilised to maintain churches and associated properties rather than relying on taxpayer-funded grants.
NSS: Government should ‘robustly scrutinise’ religious organisations’ assets before awarding grants
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans said: ‘Financial burdens should not be placed on the taxpayer whilst religious institutions fail to meet their responsibilities.
‘In recent years the Church of England, one of the largest landowners and wealthiest institutions in the country, has directed significant sums of money towards various evangelism initiatives.
‘The prioritisation of such efforts over the maintenance of historic buildings suggests the Church has the capacity to sustain its places of worship independently, but prefers taxpayers to do so.
‘We therefore urge the Government to robustly scrutinise religious organisations’ assets and other sources of funding when making decisions over spending, and to minimise unnecessary burden on the taxpayer where those responsible for maintaining places of worship have the available assets to fund their own repairs.’