Churches’ Legislation Advisory Service: PROPERTY & PLANNING
Grant aid to places of worship in England
For information
As regular readers will be aware, the law on the powers of civil parish and town councils to grant aid local places of worship has been totally unclear and the both the Historic Religious Buildings Alliance and CLAS have been campaigning on the issue of clarification for several years. The nub of the problem has been that s 8(1)(i) Local Government Act 1894 appears to prohibit such financial support and that – unlike other aspects of that Act – there has been no subsequent legislation that has decisively overridden the prohibition. We are delighted to report that it looks as if the issue has now been satisfactorily resolved, at least so far as England is concerned. During report stage in the Lords, the Government inserted a New Clause in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, as follows: Powers of parish councils: “After section 19 of the Local Government Act 1894 (provisions as to small parishes), insert— “19A Powers under other enactments (1) Nothing in this Part affects any powers, duties or liabilities conferred on a parish council by or under any other enactment (whenever passed or made). (2) This section does not apply in relation to community councils (see section 179(4) of the Local Government Act 1972).” (Inserted subsection (2) refers to community councils in Wales, which are therefore excluded from the operation of the new section.) The New Clause was agreed to by the Lords on 14 July. Given that it was moved by the Government, it is unlikely to be resisted by the Commons. [Source: Lords Hansard, 14 July]
