Cultural Recovery Funding

We are writing to you all to inform you of the second round of Cultural Recovery Funding offered by the Government, which is available for our historic places of worship, including listed churches and chapels (the most relevant funding stream is Culture Recovery for Heritage).

This is offering grants from £10k to £3m to support re-opening. It is not for capital repairs, though it can include minor repairs/maintenance etc. needed for re-opening (i.e. pigeon netting to make entry to the building safe following the build-up of pigeon guano over lockdown).

The fund is administered by Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The Church of England was involved in consultations about the structure of the scheme, and the guidance has a specific section on places of worship. 

Please note that this grant has a very tight timeframe for applications; you can apply from 7 January and applications close on 26 January. We have had some success with the first round of this funding, including one church receiving £78k so please do apply if you feel this is appropriate for your church! 

Eligible costs include the following,  but you can find more information via the link above, or do get in touch (conservation@methodistchurch.org.uk) if you have any difficulties accessing the information: 

Eligible costs

Through this programme, you can apply to cover costs associated with shortfalls in income during the period April-June 2021, whilst you are working towards restarting normal operations or business. This includes hiring staff and freelancers as you would normally, therefore supporting the wider ecosystem of the heritage sector.

In your application and Business Action Plan you will need to make the case that this shortfall is the result of reduced trading and reduced earned income. We would not expect this shortfall to be more than 25% of your usual annual turnover as this funding covers one quarter, April-June 2021.

This shortfall may be costs you incur as part of your operations and business, including: 

• staffing 
• overheads
• marketing
• heritage activities

• maintenance of buildings and land, equipment and services

In addition to your ongoing costs, we acknowledge that there may be additional “one-off” costs associated with restarting your business. Costs can include: 

• rehiring or recruiting staff 
• contracting freelancers 
• purchasing or installing essential COVID-19 related equipment, and stabilising heritage that is at immediate risk, for example, scaffolding or urgent minor conservation work (up to a maximum of 20% of the amount applied for) 
• repaying or clearing COVID-19 related debt incurred since 1 October 2020