The National Churches Trust has warned that historic church buildings across the UK are facing mounting financial and maintenance pressures, despite awarding more than £2.6 million in grants during 2025.
In its latest annual review, the charity said it supported 326 grants to churches, chapels and meeting houses across the country last year – compared with 314 in 2024.
The funding benefited 252 places of worship, with nine individual grants exceeding £40,000.
The Trust said the grants represented a combined 105,754 years of church history, with about a third going to churches in some of the country’s most disadvantaged communities.
Its grants also helped 12 churches come off the Heritage at Risk Register.
However, the charity warned that the pressures facing church buildings are growing, particularly following the Government’s decision to abolish the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS).
Introduced in 2002, the scheme allowed listed places of worship to reclaim VAT paid on repairs.
It was initially extended for another year in January 2025, although with a decreased £23 million budget and a £25,000 cap on claims.
The review states: “However in January 2026, despite a Government commissioned appraisal that convincingly demonstrated its many benefits, the LPWGS was scrapped.”
It has been replaced in England by a new four-year Places of Worship Renewal Fund.
The new programme will have a total budget of £92 million, averaging £23 million annually, but the National Churches Trust said it remained concerned that churches would now have to meet the full cost of VAT on repairs.
Sir Philip Rutnam, chair of the National Churches Trust, and chief executive Claire Walker wrote in the annual review that the loss of the previous scheme means “every listed church carrying out repairs now faces 20% extra costs.”
They continued: “This is likely to mean that projects are cancelled or scaled back, leading to more churches being at risk of closure and further damage to historic buildings.”
Although they welcomed continued government support through the replacement fund, they said: “It remains to be seen if the new scheme, which will decline in real terms over the next four years and will help far fewer churches, offers many advantages. As it only covers England, it offers no support at all for churches in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”
The warning comes after the Trust’s National Churches Survey, involving 3,628 churches from more than 70 denominations, faith and heritage groups, highlighted the scale of the challenge.
More than a third of church roofs were found to be “at risk or in urgent need of repair,” while many churches reported difficulties finding enough volunteers and raising the money needed to maintain their buildings.
At the same time, the survey underlined the continuing importance of churches to local communities.
It estimated that more than 830,000 people regularly volunteer in churches across the UK, with a typical congregation depending on about 265 hours of volunteer time monthly.
Around 80% of the churches surveyed conduct services no less than once a week, while almost half (49%) contain stained glass considered to have artistic merit.
The Trust has argued that churches should be regarded not only as places of worship but also as significant community and heritage assets.
Writing in the review, Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally said: “Our spiritual journey has been shaped in one way or another by the unique legacy of historic church buildings that stand as landmarks of our nation’s Christian inheritance, in stone, flint, brick and concrete. These earthly materials are imbued with the labour and dedication of generations past. The spires and towers evoke faith, community and belonging and house centuries of prayer and local memory.”
Quoting Apostle Peter, she said churches are made up of “‘living stones’ - people made in the image of God who, in countless ways, have long worshipped and served their communities.”
The Archbishop continued: “Churches are ‘buildings with a mission’ that embody and enable Christian witness and service in every community and I know that this remarkable architectural inheritance comes with a cost.”
She expressed gratitude to God for the many volunteers who serve churches in different ways, saying each act was “a labour of love and a precious gift towards the common good” as she called for collaboration between churches, charities and public bodies to secure their future.
The Church of England alone has around 16,200 churches and cathedrals, more than 12,000 of which are listed. Grade I status has been granted to around 4,300.
Around 4 in 5 Church of England buildings support a combined 31,300 social action initiatives annually, while 927 of the 969 places of worship listed on the 2025 Heritage At Risk Register belong to the Church of England.
Another concern highlighted in the report is a shortage of specialist craftspeople able to maintain historic buildings.
A feature on heritage skills by Abigail Frymann Rouch pointed to shortages in areas including stonemasonry, lime plastering, heritage carpentry and stained-glass work.
A 2024 Historic England report cited by the Trust found “relatively fewer workers aged 35 or under” entering the sector.
At St John’s Church in Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, where new problems emerged following previous roof repairs, Glebes Committee chair Alywin Barton described the difficulty of finding suitable specialists.
“We’re fumbling in the dark trying to find somebody to do the work,” he said, adding that churches often depended on personal contacts because there was “no network” through which to locate tradespeople.
The annual review also highlights attempts to address the shortage through specialist apprenticeships and training programmes in stonemasonry, stained glass and other traditional skills.
Additionally, it explores the preservation of the art inside historic churches, including wall paintings, murals and mosaics threatened by damp, deterioration and past destruction.
Fr Patrick van der Vorst told the review that the beauty of church buildings can itself draw people towards silence, prayer and a sense of God’s presence, saying that “beauty, in its many manifestations, is present in all church buildings.”
Meanwhile, the Trust is calling for substantially greater government investment in church buildings.
At its Great Expectations conference at London's Victoria and Albert Museum last year, it set out a three-part campaign calling on the Government to recognise church buildings as a national heritage issue, establish a £50 million-a-year capital funding programme and provide greater support for the volunteers responsible for maintaining them.
Broadcaster and barrister Rob Rinder, who spoke at the event, said: “When we fight for the churches and sing about the work of our volunteers, we’re not just preserving the past, we're protecting the possibility of a future where sacred space still means shared space. And if that’s something worth saving, then it's a mission for all of us.”
Alongside warnings about the condition of churches, the review records significant growth in the Trust's own income.
Its income increased from £2.9 million in 2022 to £5.22 million in 2025, helped by major donors, charitable foundations and almost £1.7 million in recognised legacy income.
Total expenditure reached £4.2 million, including £2.46 million in direct grants to preserve and improve churches. The charity said 89p of every £1 donated went directly towards assisting churches.
Wales received the largest regional share of grants in 2025, at £544,598, followed by Scotland with £379,594 and the North West of England with £342,837.
The Trust’s Treasure Ireland project, which concluded in April this year, supported 80 churches in Northern Ireland with £422,879 in repair grants during its lifetime, while its Cherish programme awarded almost £487,000 to 64 churches in Scotland, Wales and North West England during 2025.
The charity said maintaining church buildings was increasingly important not only for preserving architecture and Christian heritage but for protecting the community services that operate from them.
The National Churches Trust concluded: “Since 2007, we’ve helped keep over 2,000 churches, chapels and meeting houses open, in good repair and supporting local people.
“We want to keep the UK’s wonderful collection of church buildings well maintained, valued and in use.”
