Our colleague Steve Baylis has made me us aware of the following funding for places of worship:

Places of Worship Security Funding Scheme – Deadline: 20th September 2016

The Home Office has established the Places of Worship Security Funding Scheme to tackle the rising number of hate crimes against religious buildings.

£2.4 million of funding has been made available to achieve the following aims:

• Provide security hardening measures for places of worship that have been subject to – or are deemed to be vulnerable to – criminal damage and extreme physical attacks.
• Identify places of worship at greatest risk of criminal damage and that would potentially benefit from the implementation of security hardening measures.
• Provide a level of reassurance to places of worship.
• Mitigate the impact of hate crime offences including but not limited to:
• criminal damage (vandalism, graffiti, arson); and
• public order (inside the property).

All places of worship in England and Wales are eligible to submit a bid except for Synagogues and the Jewish Community as a similar commitment was made to fund Jewish community sites through a grant administered by the Community Security Trust.

Applicants will need to provide 20% of the total project cost themselves. No minimum of maximum amount of grant has been specified. Initially applicants will also need to have sufficient funds to pay for the full cost of the security equipment to be installed, before reclaiming 80% back from the Home Office upon completion. More information at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/places-of-worship-security-funding-scheme#about-the-scheme

I trust this is useful and ask that you do not hesitate to circulate as you feel appropriate. 

Kindest regards

Edwin