The guidance worth reading, verified

ChurchCare hub

Umbrella advice hub for everyone caring for church buildings and cathedrals: guidance, grants and project planning.

Data Services: resources, publications and data

Statistics for Mission attendance reports, Finance Statistics, Cathedral Statistics and the annual carbon emissions report. The source for church counts (around 16,000 CofE churches).

Latest Statistics for Mission is 2024 (published October 2025); the 2025 edition is expected autumn or winter 2026.

Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 2015, Schedule 1 (List A and List B)

The legal text of the lists of works that may be undertaken without a faculty (List A) or with archdeacon approval (List B). The Rules have been amended since 2015, including net zero related changes from July 2022, so pair with the CofE guidance page.

Heating guidance for church buildings (ChurchCare)

The central heating guidance hub, with eight linked notes: Heating Principles, Perspectives, Approaches, Checklist, Pitfalls, Options Appraisals, Heating Permissions and Temporary Heating Solutions, plus case studies.

How we manage our buildings (faculty system)

Explains the faculty permission process step by step and links the current List A and List B documents.

Net Zero Carbon Routemap

The official plan (approved by General Synod, July 2022) for the whole church to reach net zero carbon by 2030, with milestones for churches, cathedrals and dioceses.

The Practical Path to Net Zero Carbon for Churches

Ten practical first steps for a church starting its net zero journey: Eco Church registration, the Energy Footprint Tool, metering and quick wins.

Benefact Trust: apply for a grant

Building Grants and Community Impact Grants for churches and Christian charities in the UK and Ireland; the Building Improvement programme considers energy efficiency and low carbon measures.

Garfield Weston Foundation: what we fund

Family foundation giving around 100 million pounds a year across sectors including faith and heritage; funds capital projects (building works, repairs, equipment) for places of worship.

Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme: closed (official status page)

Official confirmation that the LPWGS is closed: no longer accepting applications from new or returning applicants, all 2025-26 decisions finalised and no further rounds planned. The final year ran with a 25,000 pound per claimant cap and a hard cut-off of 31 March 2026.

Scheme closed. Never present the LPWGS as live; point to this page and the Places of Worship Renewal Fund.

National Churches Trust: major grant funders directory

A maintained directory of 40+ funders for church building work, organised by project type, including a sustainable heating and lighting category. Strong single link for "where else can we look for funding".

National Churches Trust: our grants

Live grant programmes: Medium Grants (urgent repairs up to 80,000 pound project value), Large Grants (projects over 80,000 pounds), Cymru grants and Wolfson Fabric Repair Grants.

Deadlines at verification: 18 August 2026 (Medium and Cymru), 3 November 2026 (Large).

National Lottery Heritage Fund: places of worship

Grants from 10,000 pounds to 10 million via National Lottery Heritage Grants, open to places of worship of all faiths UK-wide; 1.2 billion pounds awarded to 8,500 projects since 1994.

Places of Worship Renewal Fund (Find a Grant)

The LPWGS replacement: 92 million pounds over four years, grants of 10,000 to 1,000,000 pounds for capital works to listed places of worship in England, any faith. Opened 20 May 2026; runs to 31 March 2030.

Works via Expression of Interest rounds; the first closed 14 June 2026, further rounds from September 2026.

Places of Worship Renewal Fund (Historic England)

Delivery page for the PWRF with the three grant streams (small up to 50,000, medium to 350,000, large to 1,000,000 pounds), eligibility and the EOI process. Priority to areas of highest deprivation.

Adapting Historic Buildings for Energy and Carbon Efficiency (Advice Note 18)

The formal advice note for decarbonising historic buildings while conserving significance; covers heat pumps, insulation, windows and solar, with guidance for planning authorities.

Updated edition published 16 February 2026 (current at verification).

Energy Efficiency and Places of Worship

Reducing energy costs in places of worship: maintenance first, draught-proofing, low energy lighting, heating people not the air, and permissions for measures like solar.

Energy efficiency in old buildings

Independent conservation advice: traditional solid walls often outperform standard U-value assumptions, so avoid blanket retrofit measures; targeted, well-informed improvements first.

Heating Historic Places of Worship

Core conservation guidance on heating: stable background temperature of 8 to 10 degrees C for fabric, why short-burst heating harms historic buildings, and a ranked walk-through of system types.

Eco Church (A Rocha UK)

The award scheme (Bronze, Silver, Gold) used across denominations; registration is one of the CofE routemap milestones for local churches.

Eco Church: buildings and energy resources

The buildings and energy survey category resources, including low carbon heating considerations, heat pumps, electrical heating options and case studies.

Tidings of comfort and joy: cost efficient church heating

Engineering treatment of church heating economics: minimum background temperatures of 8 to 12 degrees C to manage condensation, and worked savings from lowering setback temperature between services.

Top energy saving tips for community buildings

Practical energy advice for intermittently used community buildings: heat only the spaces in use, zone controls, room heaters and smart controls. Directly transferable to church halls and ancillary rooms.