Day: March 30, 2018

A new scheme to help build a sustainable future for listed places of worship will be piloted in urban and rural areas in England, Heritage Minister Michael Ellis announced today.

Expert advisors will work with listed buildings used by all faiths and denominations in Manchester and Suffolk to increase community engagement and vital heritage management skills.

The projects, expected to begin in early autumn, will receive a total of £1.8 million over the next two years.

Eligible listed places of worship in the pilot areas will be able to access a £500,000 minor repairs fund.

The Taylor Review: Sustainability of English Churches and Cathedrals, which was published in December 2017, called for greater community use of Church of England buildings to help congregations raise income to pay for their upkeep.

This new pilot scheme extends this support to all faiths or denominations in order to help worshippers better care for and protect their listed buildings.

Fabric support officers will work within the two areas to provide high quality advice and develop maintenance and repair plans. These will ensure that routine repairs can be addressed immediately and prevent the development of more costly problems.

Community support advisors will work with the custodians of listed places of worship to identify and strengthen relationships within their local area and develop greater community partnerships.

Heritage Minister Michael Ellis said: “Britain has an incredible array of historic buildings important to all faiths which tell the story of our shared history and our communities. However the costs of caring for and protecting many listed places of worship can be prohibitive and lead many to fall into disrepair.

“The innovative pilots I am announcing today will help unlock the community potential of these buildings and provide practical guidance so they can be preserved for future generations.”

Deborah Lamb, Deputy Chief Executive of Historic England, said:

“We are delighted that the Government is funding a new project to support the volunteers who care for historic places of worship. Buildings that are well looked after help to enrich the lives of people across England. They are special spaces to visit and can be enjoyed by anyone, whether for worship or not.

“We know that keeping these buildings in good repair can be a challenge for congregations so we are excited by the potential of this pilot scheme, and look forward to playing our part in its success.”

Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Revd Dr John Inge said: “Church buildings have always been a crucial part of the community life of this nation and the majority of them provide one or more form of social outreach or community facilities. In working with the government on reviewing their long-term sustainability, it has been gratifying to hear many stories of churches that understand their Christian mission in terms of service to the community.

“These pilots will model a new type of partnership between the Church and the Government, investing in people and buildings side-by-side to ensure churches are able to continue to fulfil this function, whilst growing new opportunities to serve the people of England.”

Notes to editors:
Funding will be available across different faiths and denominations.
The support officers will be based with the Church of England diocese of Manchester and St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

Today marks the beginning of Passover, as Jewish families around the world come together at the seder table to tell the story of their ancestors’ deliverance from slavery.

Here in the UK, we can all take the opportunity to celebrate the incredible and enduring contribution made by our Jewish community, in every corner of the country and in every walk of life.

Of course, the Exodus from Egypt did not mark the end of anti-Semitic persecution. For millennia, the descendants of those Moses led to freedom have continued to face hatred, discrimination and violence. It’s a situation that continues to this day, including, I’m sad to say, here in Britain.

It’s something I have consistently taken action to tackle, both through investing in security to protect our Jewish communities and through education, with the creation of a National Holocaust Memorial to remind us all where hatred can lead if left unchecked.

The story of Passover teaches us that, while wrong may triumph for a time, the arc of history always bends to the righteous. So, at this special time of year, let us all pledge to stand up and make our voices heard in the face of anti-Semitism.

After all, as Elie Wiesel said, “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

I wish you all a very happy and peaceful Pesach – chag kasher v’sameach.

The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

Passover is a time of coming together, when Jewish communities commemorate the liberation of the people of Israel from slavery in ancient Egypt. It is a time to celebrate freedom as a basic human right.

Pesach Sameach to all Jewish families both in the UK and around the world. I wish them a happy and peaceful holiday.

Further information

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid today (30 March 2018) set out a bold cross-government plan of action to significantly reduce the number of people sleeping rough as the Homelessness Reduction Act comes into force next week.

Based on proven activity that has helped deliver substantial decreases before, this further action will have a rapid impact on rough sleeping now and represents major progress towards the government’s commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminate it altogether by 2027.

The new package of measures – which builds on government action to date – includes:

• a new Rough Sleeping Team made up of rough sleeping and homelessness experts, drawn from, and funded by government departments and agencies with specialist knowledge across a wide-range of areas from housing, mental health to addiction
• a £30 million fund for 2018 to 2019 with further funding agreed for 2019 to 2020 targeted at local authorities with high numbers of people sleeping rough; the Rough Sleeping Team will work with these areas to support them to develop tailored local interventions to reduce the number of people sleeping on the streets
• £100,000 funding to support frontline Rough Sleeping workers across the country to make sure they have the right skills and knowledge to work with vulnerable rough sleepers.

In addition, the government is also working with the National Housing Federation to look at providing additional, coordinated move-on accommodation for rough sleepers across the country. This builds on the existing 3,750 ‘clearing house’ places already provided in London

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said:

This winter has tragically claimed the lives of a number of people sleeping on the streets. This is completely unacceptable in modern Britain.

No one should ever have to sleep rough and this government is determined to break the homelessness cycle once and for all.

Tackling the causes of rough sleeping is undoubtedly complex but we must do all we can – working across central and local government, the voluntary and charity sector – to help the most
vulnerable in society and eliminate rough sleeping for good.

The Homelessness Reduction Act is the most ambitious legal reform in decades and places new duties on councils to prevent and relieve homelessness, including for single homeless people who are at greater risk of sleeping rough.

The new package of measures announced today provides cross-government support and funding for local housing authorities to drive a significant reduction in rough sleeping.

Departments across government are working to support the Act and make sure there is sustained progress on the commitment to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminating it all together by 2027.

This package of new measures will be supported by the:

• Department of Health and Social Care – which will make available experts in mental health and drug treatment services to help support the new outreach teams, including in hostels
• Ministry of Justice – which will focus on making sure prison and probation work with local authorities and outreach teams to identify prisoners and offenders serving community sentences who are at risk of sleeping rough
• Home Office – will encourage the policing sector to work in partnership with local authorities on rough sleeping, including enforcement where appropriate, and to identify and share best practice
• Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport – which will work in partnership with MHCLG to explore opportunities for new Social Impact Bonds that build on the success of existing programmes providing effective and innovative support to rough sleepers

The government is taking significant action to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping through:

• £1.2 billion investment in various programmes, including protecting core funding of £315 million to local authorities for their work on homelessness, and an additional £617 million in Flexible Homelessness Support Grant funding, which councils can use to work more strategically to prevent and tackle local homelessness pressures
• piloting the Housing First approach – working with the Metro Mayors in the Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, to support rough sleepers with the most complex needs
• a new cross-government taskforce supported by a panel of homelessness experts, charities and local government that is driving forward a new national strategy to be published in July that will make life on the streets a thing of the past
• investing £9 billion to build more affordable housing, including new council homes
• up to £135 million of dormant assets will be directed to Big Society Capital for them to deploy into a substantial programme of investment in housing for vulnerable people including those most at risk of homelessness or rough sleeping; the first investment opportunities in this programme will be launched in the autumn

Further information

Further detail is available on gov.uk

The Homelessness Reduction Act comes into effect on 3 April 2018. Read more information on the Homelessness Reduction Act.

Clearing Houses provide supported housing in London for people with a history of rough sleeping. All properties are self-contained 1-bed or studio flats and are provided by housing associations.

In January, the Secretary of State for Culture announced that up to £135 million of dormant assets would be directed to Big Society Capital (BSC). BSC are currently developing a strategy to deploy the majority of this into a substantial programme of investment in housing for vulnerable people including those most at risk of homelessness or rough sleeping. Read more on dormant assets.