This section contains older correspondence with HLF and others, and commentary. It is roughly in date order of posting on this site, most recent posts first.

17 July The Church Buildings Council of the Church of England have made a statement criticising the decision by HLF to close GPOW (calling it ‘a grave mistake’). The latter statement also lays out ways in which the changes made by HLF might be mitigated, and asks for comment.

17 July The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff, George Stack, has expressed concern about the closure of the GPOW scheme, both in a lecture reported in the Catholic Herald, and at greater length on the national Roman Catholic Church website.

17 July Interesting article ‘Spotlight on churches’ by Marcus Binney looking back forty years to the famous exhibition Change and Decay: the future of our churches, and how GPOW and its predecessor grant schemes have greatly improved the condition and sustainability of church buildings and other places of worship since then. Includes commentary on the closure of GPOW. This article is part of Up my Street: Buildings at Risk, recently published by Save Britain’s Heritage, and is available for purchase. Reproduced by kind permission.

15 July One page editorial about the closure of GPOW in the recently-published edition of Historic Churches. You can purchase or download for free the whole of Historic Churches, which is published annually by Cathedral Communications. Reproduced by kind permission.

28 June Letters from Wales Heritage Group to Head of the HLF, Wales, and to the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, National Assembly for Wales. The letters express concern about the closure of GPOW.

7 June  Email exchange with Historic England. We wrote to Historic England setting out some concerns emerging from recent correspondence. As part of this, we explained HRBA’s view that that the switch away from designated (i.e. listed) places of worship through closure of the GPOW scheme will be bad for those buildings, because at a time of financial stringency it moves money away from the most important buildings.

27 May The Friends of Friendless Churches have issued a statement. We think it is well worth reading as it sets out very clearly the concerns felt by many people about the closure of the Grants for Places of Worship Scheme. It appears in their Newsletter (produced jointly with the Ancient Monuments Society) for Summer 2017. You can find out more about the Friends here.

15 July 2017 one page editorial about the closure of GPOW in the recently-published edition of Historic Churches. You can purchase or download for free the whole of Historic Churches, which is published annually by Cathedral Communications.

28 June 2017 Letters from Wales Heritage Group to Head of the HLF, Wales, and to the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, National Assembly for Wales. The letters express concern about the closure of GPOW.

For older correspondence and commentary, go to section 5. of the archived page.