Select committee: Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 19
3rd Report - Protecting built heritage
Published 13 Jul 2026
Addressed to Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Protecting built heritage All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend that the government ensures that overall funding available through the Places of Worship Renewal Fund is at least as generous in real terms as the level of support provided through the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme prior to its reductions in budget and the introduction of per- site caps, to prevent any reduction in the number and scale of essential repair projects. The government must also ensure that the eligibility criteria for the Places of Worship Renewal Fund strike an appropriate balance 50 between measures of deprivation and the heritage value of buildings. The government should provide an update on the implementation and early progress of the scheme in its response to this report and should write to the committee again on the matter at six and 12 months thereafter. (Recommendation, Paragraph 55)
From: Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, 3rd Report - Protecting built heritage (HC 144), 13 July 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 16 October 2026 (deadline 9 October 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the report and agrees with many of its aims, but says it is "not proposing to adopt" a heritage-to-housing scheme and "not minded to accept" the national dataset recommendation, pointing instead to existing planning, funding and data arrangements.
- On housing, it "agrees" heritage regeneration and tackling vacancy are key priorities, but does "not agree" that national policy should require re-use to be prioritised before new build, citing the target of building 1.5 million new homes.
- On a national heritage dataset, it is "not minded to accept" the recommendation and is "concerned about the feasibility" of gathering and maintaining such information reliably and consistently.
- On funding, it says it "disagrees" that the National Portfolio Organisation model should be adopted for heritage and does not agree the taxpayer should routinely fund core operating costs, preferring capital grants that help custodians generate their own income.
- It commits to update the Committee on the Places of Worship Renewal Fund 6 and 12 months from submission of the report, and to "revert to the Committee in September 2028" on measuring heritage outcomes under the revised NPPF.