Churches in the Diocese of Leeds responded enthusiastically to the announcement of the Places of Worship Renewal Fund, 
with around 40 parishes across the diocese requesting letters of support and making expressions of interest in the first round in June 2026. Nationally, Historic England received over 1,000 expressions of interest, clearly demonstrating the need for funding towards repair and improvement of our church buildings.
Alena-Rose Douglas, Diocese of Leeds Church Buildings Support Officer, said: "It was really exciting to review all of the requests for support and see just how much people in our parishes care for their churches.
“From a very practical perspective, it was also a great opportunity to engage with parishes early in their project planning, connecting them with support and signposting them to information about permissions and other funding sources”.
While the engagement with the scheme was largely positive, Historic England were overwhelmed by the sheer number of enquiries and applicants waited longer than the advertised 10 days for a response.
“We have been advised that all applicants should now have received a response to their expression of interest; if your parish is still waiting for a reply please get in touch so that we can make enquiries on your behalf," Alena-Rose said.
"We know that the success rate in this initial round was not high, informal feedback suggests only around 90 of the 1,000 applications have been invited to make a full application, although some have been invited to re-submit in September.”
The FAQs section of the Historic England website is being updated on a regular basis, to help make the application process and criteria clearer. The diocesan website has also been updated to provide links to alternative funding opportunities.
The deadline for the next round of expressions of interest is expected to be 27 September 2026. As with the previous round a letter of support from the Diocese should be included with your application. You can request this letter by email to renewalfund@leeds.anglican.org and more information is available on the diocesan website here.