Our VAT grant scheme, Listed Maintenance Grants, has taken another step forward in the past few weeks. The Club sent a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to DCMS, the Treasury, and the body who administer the Listed Places of Worship grant scheme; in all cases seeking information about how the grants are dispersed.

The Club can reveal that the figures for LPW line up exactly with our projections and vindicate the approach we have taken in modelling our new scheme. Even with the ability to package multiple works together, annual grants still cluster at the bottom end of the scheme, with a median far below the overall average.

This is a strong piece of evidence for our grant scheme, and underlines that our grant fund can realistically support tens of thousands of people each year. Being able to confirm the scale of the cost underlines that our approach is reasonable and affordable, and still able to deliver a huge amount of good.