English cathedrals need £140 million to be sustained over the next 5 years

“We cannot let 800 years of worship and service fail on our watch", says the Church of England.

Evangelical Focus

Premier Christian News · LONDON · 14 DECEMBER 2021 · 15:42 CET

Lichfield Cathedral. / <a target="_blank" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lichfield_Cathedral_Exterior_from_NE,_Staffordshire,_UK_-_Diliff.jpg"> David Iliff, Wikimedia Commons</a>, CCO.,
Lichfield Cathedral. / David Iliff, Wikimedia Commons, CCO.

According to the Church Commissioners for England, cathedrals in England will need at least £140 million to cover repairs and maintenance over the next five years.

Christian Conservative Member of Parliament, Andrew Selous, who represents the Church Commissioners for England in the House of Commons, stressed that “we are all going to have to put our hands in our pockets to keep them in good repair, because we cannot let 800 years of worship and service fail on our watch".

He pointed out that they are “hugely grateful for the £29.4 million for cathedrals” they have already received “from the Government’s Cultural Recovery Fund”, and that the Church Commissioners “recently allocated £20 million to the cathedral sustainability fund”.

Selous explained all this to respond to Lichfield Tory MP Michael Fabricant, who asked about what regular funding can be provided for the Church of England cathedrals.

 

“Cathedrals are not just places for worship”

The Christian Conservative MP also confirmed that “£50 billion is indeed the contribution to national wellbeing that the Treasury has calculated in its green book methodology”.

Fabricant mentioned that figure as “the amount of money generated, according to the Treasury, to the economy by our lovely English cathedrals”.

Fabricant underlined that “cathedrals are not just places for worship, they are used as vaccination centres, concert halls, and even for political hustings and debates. They do need several million pounds each year to maintain”.

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