§ Sir Charles MorrisonTo ask the Prime Minister what consideration she has given to the possibility of Government assistance towards the maintenance and repair of British cathedrals.
§ Sir Geoffrey HoweI have been asked to reply.
Government expenditure on the maintenance of historic buildings in England is channelled through English Heritage. Its policy is to focus financial support on parish churches rather than cathedrals and is based on the Church of England's own view that cathedrals are better placed to raise funds from public and private sector appeals. Should English Heritage or the Church of England consider changing this policy, and should the changes have implications for English Heritage's overall grant-in-aid, the Government would carefully consider any case put forward. A similar policy is adopted by the Welsh Office and regularly reviewed.
A different approach, however, is adopted by the Historic Buildings Council for Scotland since, of the 25 'churches' with cathedral status, only four are considered to be cathedrals in scale. It is considered unlikely that, were the cathedral status churches to be threatened, they could be assisted wholly by funds raised through public appeals and private donations. Consequently, cathedrals are considered for historic buildings repair if all the normal eligibility criteria are met. Since 1978, when a scheme of 2W historic building repair grants for churches in ecclesiastical use was set up, repairs to nine Scottish churches with cathedral status have attracted grant.