In last week’s Autumn Statement the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a special fund of £15 million to pay for repairs to roofs and guttering on vulnerable listed church buildings.
The fund is open to any listed church building where roof and gutter repairs have been identified as urgent and necessary. Applicants are invited to apply for grants of between £10,000 and £100,000.
Awards have to be allocated by the 31st March and the deadline for submissions is 30th January 2015.
Commenting on the new fund, Member of Parliament for Beverley and Holderness, Graham Stuart said,
“This is very good news for our cherished church buildings that form part of the fabric of our Yorkshire communities.”
“Many volunteers work tirelessly to raise money to maintain these buildings but when a large capital outlay comes along it can be a daunting task to raise the money.”
“Roofs are an expensive capital investment, the cost of which is normally difficult to achieve through fundraising alone and, to that end, the work goes undone leaving the building facing a future of structural decline.”
“I encourage anybody who is involved with helping to maintain a church building to take a look at this fund to see if your building could benefit. More information about the funding is available on the National Heritage Memorial Fund website www.nhmf.org.uk.”
