Grants for churches in 2026: repair, energy and community funding

Short answer. There is no single grant for churches. Church funding is a stack of separate funders, each paying for a different job: repairing the fabric, cutting energy bills and carbon, or building community space. The one VAT scheme that used to help listed places of worship, the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, closed to new applicants on 31 March 2026. What follows is a map of the main routes as we checked them on 18 October 2026, what each pays for, and the order to approach them in. Funders change amounts and dates, so every row links to the funder or says where the figure came from.

We publish guidance and reply to enquiries by email; we do not award grants, write applications for funders or install anything. Nothing here is a statement that your church qualifies.

Match the funder to the job

Most failed applications are a good project sent to the wrong funder. Before you read any fund's page, decide which of these three your project is, because funders draw the line firmly.

• Repair and maintenance of the building (roofs, stonework, rainwater goods, structural work). The big repair funders will fund the fabric but are not set up to pay for solar panels.
• Energy and carbon (solar PV, batteries, heat pumps, lighting, insulation, controls). A smaller set of funders, plus diocesan and denominational net zero programmes, pay for these.
• Community use (a kitchen, toilets, a hall, an accessible entrance). Often funded by community and local-authority sources rather than church-specific ones.

A roof repair and a solar array on the same roof are two projects with two budgets, even if the scaffolding is shared. Doing the repair first and the array second is common, and funders will often ask which is which.

The main routes, as checked on 18 October 2026

Funder	What it pays for	Where	Status and detail we could verify
National Churches Trust, Large Grants (formerly Cornerstone Grants)	Structural repair and maintenance of places of worship; also listed for some facilities work	UK, any Christian denomination	Two-stage process (stage 2 by invitation). A funding directory lists the next deadline as 3 November 2026. Directories disagree on the project-cost threshold (£80,000 versus £100,000), so read the Trust's own guidance. Smaller Foundation grants (£500 to £5,000, urgent maintenance) and Gateway grants (£3,000 to £10,000, project development) have been listed by local funding directories, with grants covering up to 50% of costs. nationalchurchestrust.org
Places of Worship Renewal Fund (Historic England, funded by DCMS)	Capital repair and maintenance to keep listed places of worship safe, open and in public use	England, listed places of worship in active use	£92 million over four years to 31 March 2030, in rounds. Reported bands: small grants £10,000 to £50,000, medium £50,001 to £350,000, large £350,001 to £1 million; VAT eligible where it cannot be reclaimed; two stages starting with an expression of interest. The published purpose is repair, not solar. The reported round-two expression-of-interest deadline was 2 October 2026, so check Historic England for the next window. It replaces, rather than adds to, the closed Listed Places of Worship scheme.
Benefact Trust, building improvement grants	Building improvements including energy efficiency and renewable energy such as solar panels	UK	Described as a rolling programme with applications at any time. The Demonstrator Churches route for Church of England churches works through DAC nomination; the 2024 round was reported at up to £50,000 plus a further £36,000, and a stage-2 grant described as up to 25% of a well-developed project once 50% of the funding is raised. We could not confirm 2026 terms: check benefacttrust.co.uk/grants and your diocesan net zero contact.
Church in Wales, Progressing Net Zero	Net zero projects including solar panels and battery storage	Wales (Church in Wales)	Reported as running from summer 2026 to summer 2029 with demonstrator grants of up to £45,000, normally contributing up to 50% of project costs. Source: the Benefact Trust announcement; confirm with your diocese.
Diocesan, circuit and district programmes	Net zero, energy and capital projects	By denomination	Each Church of England diocese, Methodist district and Catholic diocese sets its own funds and deadlines. Start with your net zero or buildings officer; our diocese pages and solar grants guide list what we have checked.
Local authority funding	Varies: some councils run church care or community grants	Local	For example, Bath and North East Somerset Council lists a church care grants entry in its funding finder. Search your own council's funding finder.

Funder guides: Benefact Trust grants for churches and National Churches Trust grants explained.

What is closed, and what people still assume is open

The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme stopped accepting applications from new or returning applicants on 31 March 2026, with no further rounds. Old guides, diocesan pages and some installer sites still describe it as a live 20% VAT refund. Do not budget for it. The nearest replacement in England is the Places of Worship Renewal Fund above, which pays for repair, not for solar.

Separately, installing solar in a building used solely for a relevant charitable purpose is zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027, after which the rate is due to revert to 5%. That is not a grant, but on a typical project it is worth more than most grants. The conditions, including the 95% use test, are on our church solar VAT page.

The order that avoids wasted applications

1. Settle the consent route first. A listed church needs its faculty or consent route understood before a funder will release money: the faculty process, solar on listed buildings, conservation-area rules.
2. Decide ownership. Many capital funders pay towards an asset the church will own. A power purchase agreement means the church buys electricity rather than an asset, and can rule out a capital grant for the same equipment: see church solar PPAs.
3. Get two or three comparable quotes before the funder's stage two. Funders ask for them, and you will want to compare like with like.
4. Line up match funding. Several funders above are described as paying up to half of project costs, or requiring half to be raised first. Treat the PCC's own fundraising and any diocesan money as part of the plan from day one.
5. Apply in the order of the deadlines, not the size of the grant. A smaller grant that arrives in time to unlock a bigger one is often worth more than the bigger one alone.

Common mistakes

• Budgeting for a scheme that has closed.
• Applying to a repair funder for solar panels, or to an energy funder for roof repairs.
• Signing a PPA or an installer contract before a capital grant decision.
• Treating a funder's reported 2024 terms as the 2026 terms.
• Starting work before permissions or the funder's start-date rules allow it.

Where to go next

If the project is solar, the detailed schemes, worked examples and diocesan programmes are on solar panels for churches grants. For a hall or community building, see village and community halls and church halls. If you are not sure whether the roof suits solar at all, the checker above and the enquiry form below send your details to us, and we reply by email.

Sources and dates (checked 18 October 2026)

• National Churches Trust grants pages and funding-directory listings (deadlines and thresholds as listed; confirm on the Trust's site).
• Places of Worship Renewal Fund: Historic England and DCMS announcement coverage, including the Catholic Bishops' Conference summary: cbcew.org.uk.
• Benefact Trust grants and announcements: benefacttrust.co.uk/grants.
• Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme closure: DCMS (31 March 2026); see our closure explainer.