The Bishop's House, 23 Davenport Road, Coventry, CV5 6PW

THE BISHOP OF COVENTRY Telephone: (024) 7667 2244

The Right Reverend Colin Bennetts Fax: (024) 7671 3271

e.mail: bishcov@btconnect.com

20th February, 2007

Dear Mr. S,

Chancel Repair Liability

Thank you for your e-mail dated 17th February.

I have received a number of similar letters and do understand the strength of feeling.

It may help if I explain the difficult position in which the Church finds itself both as regards the maintenance of its parish churches and specifically regarding chancel repair liability.

The Church of England, in its parish churches, is responsible for maintaining 45 % of the Grade 1 Listed Buildings in the country and the majority of all the parish churches are Grade II or higher.

Quite apart from being centres of worship, the parish churches are an essential part of the heritage and landscape of England. In most villages and in many towns and cities our churches are by far the most significant buildings and I know how painful to a local community the loss of its parish church can be. Most churches are lovingly cared for by their local communities and especially the church congregations but the financial burden is enormous.

Contrary to popular belief, the Church has no central funds available to maintain its parish churches. These are the entire responsibility of individual parishes and in particular the Parochial Church Councils.

There is no assured state funding for parish churches unlike some continental countries where there is a church tax and the community as a whole maintains the building.

Parishes rely on the sacrificial giving of their congregations with voluntary donations of varying levels from other members of the community.

Applications for grants can be made to English Heritage and indeed English Heritage helps so far as it can with its limited resources.

But here is the dilemma in which the Church finds itself. In applying for a grant to English Heritage there is one question which has to be answered - does the church have a lay rector? If the church does have a lay rector then English Heritage would expect the lay rector to be approached in respect of any repairs to the chancel before any grant is made.

Parishes who have a lay rector are therefore disadvantaged in seeking grants from English Heritage.

Furthermore the statutory responsibility for maintaining parish churches falls upon the Parochial Church Councils. These are subject to the provisions of charity and trust law and they are under a duty in carrying out their statutory responsibility to seek what funds are legally available to them of which they are aware.

Turning now to the position of lay rectors. I do not know of any instance (although there may be some) where lay rectors have purchased land without knowing about the liability and have been called upon to meet the liability. 1 understand that Mrs Wallbank's father purchased the land at Aston Cantlow at auction knowing that the land carried with it the responsibility to repair the chancel of the parish church.

Indeed, I know of another case in this diocese where purchasers have recently purchased an estate knowing that a part of the land carried with it chancel repair liability and negotiated a discount. The landowners in that case fully recognise their liability. In most instances landowners owning land with chancel repair liability accept their responsibility and have done so for many years. In the case of Mr and Mrs Wallbank, they decided to challenge the legal position as was their right on the ground that the liability infringed their human rights. The House of Lords decided that this was not the case.

Having said all this, I entirely agree that chancel repair liability is an anachronism and should be replaced. However, this can only be done (now that the House of Lords has made its decision) by legislation, as recommended by the Law Commission.

I have every sympathy with Mr and Mrs Wallbank and all other lay rectors. While in strict law I have no jurisdiction regarding lay rector's liability I do intend raising this issue with the Government and am urging them to consider introducing legislation to deal with the matter as soon as possible.

In the meanwhile, I understand that English Heritage is considering whether it might be able to make grants to lay rectors who are affected.

Yours sincerely,

pp Colin Coventry

Celia Foster

Dictated by the Bishop and signed in his absence to avoid delay