Church leaders have called for urgent government support to protect church buildings after a new report from the National Churches Trust highlighted the UK’s increasing reliance on mainly-volunteer led services including food banks, mental health counselling and youth groups based in churches, chapels and meeting houses.
The House of Good report from the National Churches Trust, the UK’s leading church buildings support charity, has branded the nation’s church buildings a ‘National Help Service’ after finding they provided £12.4 billion worth of essential social and economic support to local communities during the 12 months up until May 2020.
The report found that church buildings are a ready-made network of responsive hubs providing increasing levels of care and wellbeing to local communities throughout the UK. The majority of churches found a way to provide community support during the COVID-19 pandemic but the report warns that many of their buildings are under threat, especially in towns and cities where they deliver the most value, as support for essential maintenance and repair from government and other funding bodies dries up.
