Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme

Overview

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport have announced that the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme which was due to close 31 March 2025 will be extended to 31 March 2026.

Important Update

New Q&A guidance is now available to provide more information on changes to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme coming into effect from 1 April 2025, including the implementation of the new annual cap of £25,000 per listed place of worship.

You can read the Q&A guidance here.

Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme confirmed for 2025/26

• The Listed Places of Worship (LPW) Grant Scheme gives grants covering the VAT on repairs of over £1,000 to listed buildings used as places of worship.
• You can also submit one claim in any 12-month period that is less than £1,000, but more than £500.
• The Government is extending the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme until 31 March 2026, with a budget of £23 million. This will continue to enable religious organisations to claim grants covering eligible VAT costs paid towards repairs and renovations.
• To ensure the scheme remains within budget, a new cap will be introduced, limiting the total amount of any individual place of worship can claim to £25,000 in the coming year. Places of worship can make more than one claim, but the total of their claims should not exceed £25,000.
• Where a place of worship’s VAT costs exceed the cap, they will still be able to claim up to £25,000.

This will continue to enable religious organisations to claim grants covering eligible VAT costs paid towards repairs and renovations.

Funded up to £42m, the LPWS has paid out £317m since its inception and assisting over 13,000 buildings. The LPW scheme presently receives approximately 7000 applications per annum. Eligibility for a LPW grant is assessed against complex criteria, involving the eligibility of the building and the nature of the work being carried out.

Check your building is listed

To be eligible for the scheme, your place of worship must be listed with the relevant statutory listing agency. Places of worship in Northern Ireland can check their listing by searching at Historic Environment Division in the Department for Communities 

Listings carried out by local councils are not acceptable within the scheme. Claims will only be considered for repairs to buildings that are listed at the time the work is carried out.

If your claim is returned because they cannot identify your listing, it does not necessarily mean that the place of worship is not listed – it may mean that the details recorded at the time of listing differ slightly to those on the application. You should return your application together with paperwork to show your listing with the relevant statutory listing agency.

Part of their approval process is to check against the statutory records that your building is formally listed, however if you do not know the listing grade or category you can leave that field blank in your application.

If your building is not listed

If your building is not listed you can apply to have it considered to be listed if it is of special architectural or historic interest:

Northern Ireland: The Listing Process for historic buildings

Find out more here

Who can apply?

Although the terminology used within the scheme predominantly corresponds to features of Church of England places of worship, which account for the majority of claims on the scheme, the scheme is open to listed places of worship of all denominations and religions and aims to provide equivalent treatment to listed places of worship used by other denominations and religions.

The scheme is designed to assist works to places of worship where the costs would be the responsibility of a local congregation or a recognised denomination or faith group. The scheme covers only formally constituted religious organisations. You’ll be asked to certify that the religious organisation the place of worship serves:

•  has charitable status or is recognised as a charity by HMRC
•  is covered by a parochial church council or equivalent

If neither of these apply, you’ll be asked to provide a copy of your constitution.

The building’s sole or main use must be as a public place of worship and it must be used as a place of public worship at least 6 times a year. You’ll be asked to certify this.

Certain places of worship are not required to demonstrate that buildings are used for public religious worship at least 6  times a year. These include:

• Places of worship used as monasteries, nunneries or other similar religious establishments
• Churches owned or vested in organisations that look after redundant places of worship may not need to demonstrate their use for public religious worship at least 6 times a year. These organisations include the Historic Chapels Trust, the Friends of Friendless Churches, the Scottish Redundant Churches Trust, the Churches Conservation Trust, the Welsh Religious Buildings Trust, the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, and the Norwich Historic Churches Trust. These groups do need to demonstrate that their principal or primary purpose is to conserve, repair and maintain redundant listed places of worship which are not in private ownership.

Applications should include the registered charity number where applicable, along with any other supporting evidence to show how the criteria are met.

For monasteries and nunneries, and similar establishments of other faiths, only the element of the building used for religious worship is eligible.

• Visit here for information regarding accommodation, ancillary buildings, church halls, planning consent, and private chapels, and chapels at schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, prisons and almshouses.

Repair work covered by the scheme

• Architectural features
• Drainage
• External features
• General building work
• Internal features
• Professional fees for eligible projects (please see additional guidance on the Submitting Invoices page as some exceptions may apply)
• Windows

For a full list of eligible expenditure visit the website

Eligible Invoices

• The minimum value of invoices excluding VAT for any one claim to the scheme is £1,000. An application may comprise a number of smaller invoices, but each claim must apply to works that are eligible under the scheme and together be over £1000 excluding VAT.
• You can also submit one claim in any 12-month period that is less than £1,000 excluding VAT, but more than £500.
• Work must be carried out by a VAT registered contractor. You should check that the contractor is registered for VAT by asking for their VAT registration number, which must be shown on the invoice.
• Invoices must be under 12 months old from the date of issue to the date the grant claim is received. You must have paid your VAT invoices before making an application.
• Invoices for final payments where money has been retained until an agreed period after completion of the works can be included. You should provide invoices or other evidence that the work was eligible at the time it was carried out.
• If you’re applying for work on more than one building, each will have a unique identification number and will need a separate application.
• Where a claim includes an invoice relating to both eligible and ineligible buildings or works, the split must be declared on either the invoice or in column 4 of question 23.
• They won’t pay claims where the cost of VAT has been covered by an insurance company or any insurance excess you’ve paid. Where some costs have been covered by insurance, invoices must not be addressed to the insurance company.

Find out more here