Historic Churches 2019

4 BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 26 TH ANNUAL EDITION on nefarious activity deters those with malicious intent. There will be some buildings where hate crime or other local issues mean that an open door in daylight hours isn’t prudent, but it is a fair principle that if the wider population contributes to the building through philanthropy, lottery-playing or taxes, then they should have access to it. Taxation is in itself a two-edged sword for places of worship. On one hand this is a major source of income through gift aid recovery on donations (over £90 million a year for the Church of England alone) and the welcome 2016 increase in the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme for cash gifts up to £8,000 a year simplified claiming for congregations. On the other, the levying of VAT on repairs and maintenance, but not new work, is a major burden on those trying to care for places of worship. Since 2001 the government has provided a VAT refund scheme which has repaid £275 million to listed places of worship but, valuable as that is, the scheme is retrospective and invoices have to be paid before claiming, so it can cause a cash-flow challenge. There is growing concern that the commitment to this funding ends in March 2020. This is causing congregations anxiety, particularly those with major building projects that will continue beyond that date, which will be applying for match-funding grants assessed on the basis that full VAT refunds will be available. This is the context in which The Taylor Review was published. Its recommendations were not a silver bullet but prompted government to fund a pilot project that could explore the nuanced application of experience that The Taylor Review suggested. The pilot is open to all faiths and denominations, not only Church of England congregations, in the two pilot areas: Greater Manchester and Suffolk. These areas were chosen to enable as broad a range of buildings, congregations, faiths, denominations and locations as possible to participate, but the pilot is structured in exactly the same way in both. DCMS asked Historic England to manage the delivery but it is a partnership project, with an advisory board chaired by DCMS and strong national and local co-working promoted. DCMS has also appointed an independent evaluator, Frontier Economics. This is a major step forward in a fragmented and diverse sector. Unlike museums and many other parts of the cultural arena, places of worship have never collated verifiable data sets. This meant that the Taylor Panel had to wade through a wide range of evaluation formats for different schemes, most of which offered lots of qualitative narrative but very little quantative measurement. By the end of the Taylor Pilot there will be new baseline data, greater understanding of the value of assessment and insight into how to demonstrate the value of investment in, and the public benefits provided by, historic places of worship. There may also be some guidance as to how congregations can achieve this through better articulation of their achievements (outputs, outcomes, impact) in the future. The pilot picks up on several key recommendations from The Taylor Review but has not been able to include a major repair grant scheme, simply because it would be impossible to deliver it in the 18 months before the pilot ends in March 2020. There is a minor repairs fund, which will distribute £1 million in grants of up to £10,000 for urgent maintenance or small repairs. This is to incentivise the crucial work that, if left undone, can lead to the preventable decay that has such a negative impact on historic fabric. Advice about minor repairs is provided by a fabric support officer, who makes a site visit and helps congregations to understand the value of stitch-in-time works and draw up an annual maintenance plan. Where appropriate the officers can also advise on applying for a pilot grant. The fabric support officer for Suffolk provides advice on minor church repairs and maintenance, and is pictured here with the churchwarden for All Saints Church in Beyton, inspecting the building and discussing a maintenance plan. (Photo: Anne Harrison) As a result of the pilot, the church of St Paul, Peel in Salford has been offered a grant for proposed works subject to obtaining the necessary permission. A realistic maintenance plan will also be developed. (Photo: Historic England)