Church Hall Fundraising

Update March 2025:

The current phase of the Halls Renovation Project aims to solve the major damp issues by re-roofing the 160-year-old original upper hall roof, repairing or replacing the rainwater goods, insulating the roof and adding solar panels and battery storage.

In February 2025 we went out to tender for the work. Our budget, based on our quantity surveyor’s costs, was £525,000. Three contractors tendered, with quotes ranging from 634,000 to a staggering £723,000. We sat down with our architect to see what we could do to “value engineer” the project (i.e. cut costs!). By deferring some of the work that didn’t need the scaffolding in place, we managed to reduce the cost of our preferred contractor to fit in with our original budget, which was what our funding plan was based on. The works deferred involved some internal works that could easily be delayed, but also the deferral of £20,000 for the installation of battery storage, which we really didn’t want to do, although they can be added at any future date.

Then the government introduced a new cap of £25,000 per annum per building on the Listed Places of Worship scheme. This created a new £62,000 hole in our funding plan. This was identified as a major risk on our £230,000 National Lottery Heritage Fund application, with the mitigating factor being the deferral of the work that didn’t need scaffolding. Whilst acknowledging that the application was a good application, Heritage Lottery did not award the grant requested, citing the high finance risk to the project. Clearly, the risk to the Listed Places of Worship scheme had now become a reality. The letter stated, “In particular, we thought that the level of unsecured match funding posed a risk to the project.” It continued, “If you wish to reapply, we would be happy to discuss your proposals with you. We would not encourage you to reapply for this project in its current form, but we would be happy to consider a revised application.”

We went back to our preferred contractor following this news, to see how the project might be adapted. They suggested removing the roof from the scaffolding. That would mean working along the roof in strips, removing the old slates, insulating the roof and re-roofing that strip before moving on. That reduced the costs by £51,000. Of course, it also means that the project is more susceptible to prolonged bad weather over the summer.

We had a Teams meeting with one of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s team to review the project and discuss resubmitting the application on the new approach / cost basis. This was a very positive meeting. Following that meeting we resubmitted the application for £230,000, feeling a lot more confident than before. We also submitted our Demonstrator Project stage 2 application to the Church of England Net Zero team for £50,000 of funding, which also brings £36,000 matched funding from the Benefact Trust.

Garfield Weston has confirmed a grant of £30,000, and the Congregation & General Charitable Trust also awarded £15,000, both subject to the project being fully funded. The church’s own funds for the project now stand at £100,700, and we have managed to allocate an additional £8,000, being the 2025 income from our Lanseaton endowment fund.

Heritage Lottery pays 50% up front, 30% when those funds are spent, and 20% in arrears. We submitted an application to Truro Diocese for a £50,000 interest-free 6-month cash-flow loan to be repaid by the final 20%. We also submitted a separate application for a £25,000 five-year interest-free loan to cover the costs of the battery storage, should that be needed. Both loans have been approved by the Diocese.

When we applied for listed buildings consent for the works, the conservation officer saw that our energy efficiency report suggested panels on south-facing roof of the unlisted lower hall. Listed building consent was granted, based on that approach.

When talking to our potential contractors, they all expressed concerns about putting solar panels on the 150-year-old lower hall roof. We have submitted a second listed building consent application seeking to return to solar panels on the upper hall. We will know the outcome of this fresh application in April.

We will know the outcome of the Heritage Lottery application in May and the stage 2 demonstrator project application in April. We are also awaiting decisions from three other small grant funders, two of which will meet in April.

If all of this comes together, our funding plan is now just £15,400 short, with the three small grant funders still to notify us of their decision. We would sign contracts in May and the work would start in June and continue until November. We would retain access to the halls for most of the time, but the scaffolding will reduce our parking.

I mentioned that our value engineering included removing the battery installation. We have applied to the Church of England Net Zero team for a second grant of £10,000 under their Give to Go Green scheme to allow us to reinstate the batteries. This is a matched funding scheme using an online Give a Little account, with the national church match-funding whatever we raise £1 for £1, up to £10,000. Unlike the appeal we ran at the start of the project, this scheme has none of the problems that we experienced with the Aviva and Crowdfunding appeal.

So, in summary, despite some significant setbacks, we are still hoping to be able to delivery this project. We have a lot of applications for which we are awaiting outcomes. Please pray for the success of them all. We really need them all to go through if the project is to be successful.

Our Church Centre is a much loved, and well used community space; from Karate classes, to Slimming World, Art and craft groups, Polling Stations, Warm Space initiatives, birthday parties and the church office…to name just a few!

We are very blessed to have such an amazing space, with 3 kitchen areas, 2 large halls, a dedicated youth space, and various rooms for community and church use.

The halls are grade II listed, and were built in 1865. They still have the original roofing – which unfortunately causes major damp problems in the buildings.

We are planning to give our hall complex a complete refurbishment and make it Net Zero carbon emissions by replacing the original roof and adding solar panels. We also hope to insulate the walls internally and switch to a renewable heating system.

We started our fundraising efforts with an amazing match funding offer from Aviva, who matched individual donations up to £250!

To see our project page, please visit https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/p/smart-netzero

Thank you for supporting our project!

 FAQ’s

1. What exactly are you trying to do?
   • Give our much loved and well used church hall complex a complete refurbishment and take it as close to Net Zero carbon emissions as possible
2. How are you going to do it?
   • Our starting point is to eliminate the significant damp issues caused by the original roof from … wait for it … 1865. So yes, after 158 years we think it needs replacing. Whilst we have the scaffolding in place and are replacing the roof we will of course add insulation, solar panels and battery storage.
3. Why does your project matter?
   • We estimate that the halls footfall is approximately 32,000. The people who come here do so for all sorts of activities – dancing, karate, losing weight, toddler groups, spinning, quilting, arts and crafts, voting in elections, birthday parties and other celebrations.
   • About 65% of those visiting relates to pure community use, 15% relates to community activities run by the church, such as our Adults, Babies and Children toddler group, with 20% being church related activities, such as church services and children and youth work.
4. What impact are you hoping to have?
   • The halls are grade II listed, built in 1865. They have no insulation, old single pane windows and ancient inefficient gas boilers. Because the buildings are in constant use and require heating mornings, afternoons and evenings, our energy usage is massive – about 100,000 kilowatt hours. That’s roughly the equivalent of having four kettles permanently switched on every hour of every day. We want to get to the stage where we have net zero carbon emissions, generating at least as much energy as we use.
5. What makes your project unique?
   • So, we want our halls to be an example of how you can make an old uninsulated building net zero and give it a complete facelift to create a warm and welcoming building with modern facilities whilst maintaining the integrity of the listed building.
6. What are your motivations for doing this project?
   • We are an Eco Church. We got our bronze award in 2021 and have just been awarded silver in September 2023. We are passionate about climate action and cherishing nature, so we have a living churchyard with lots of wild flowers. The Church of England has set the target of becoming net zero by 2030, and we’d love this project to inspire others as well.
7. When did you start working on your project?
   • We started with a survey of users of the hall in 2022 and used the results to create the brief for our architects. Since then we have had an energy efficiency report to ensure we are heading in the right direction.
8. What milestones have you achieved already?
   • We have completed the design stage of the project and been awarded a grant from Cornwall Council’s ‘Community Capacity Fund’. We are now ready to launch our appeal for grant funding and donations to start phase 2, replacing the roof to solve all the damp issues.
9. What have you learned along the way?
   • We taken the time to consult widely, obtain professional advice and make sure we are on the right track. We had assumed that any new heating system would be based around ground source or air source heat pumps, but the energy survey suggested air to air heat pumps to avoid significant re-plumbing.
10. What will the money raised be spent on?
    • This is a capital project, so all the funds raised will go towards the works to save this wonderful building from deteriorating further, and bring it up to a modern, warm and welcoming space for the church and for our community for generations to come.