How Ambitious Can Your Church Renovation Project Be?

Many churches will have some ambitious renovation, repair, or reordering projects, but they are unlikely to be as spectacular as the removal exercise in Sweden that has made headlines around the world.

The 113-year-old timber church at Kiruna, 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle, has been moved across the city to a new location, as the building is at risk from subsidence as a consequence of iron ore mining in the area. Other buildings have also been moved or demolished and replaced since the dangers were identified a decade ago.

This has led to the entire church building being mounted on a huge wheeled platform and transported to a safer location. The journey took two days and work will now need to be completed to lower the church into its new foundations.

It is fair to say that any church building renovation you are planning probably won’t make the international news.

However, the story does raise some interesting considerations here in Britain. Firstly, there is the question of subsidence arising from local mine workings. At Kiruna, the mining company responsible for the issue paid for the move.

Similarly, the UK government advice is that churches (among other buildings) may be able to make claims to the Coal Authority or the mining company, who would be under an obligation to pay for repairs. This could mean the payment is enough to fully cover all repair work, although if your project includes other improvements, those require separate funding.

Secondly, having once been voted the most beautiful pre-1950s building in Sweden, the Kiruna church has an aesthetic nobody wanted to damage. This echoes the issue of whether your church is a listed building or has some other heritage constraint on it, such as being part of a conservation area.

This may well place major restrictions on what you can alter, so it is vital to check that any plans you have do not breach the listing or, if they would, you must seek and receive listed building consent.
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None of that means you can’t be ambitious in your plans, but there are some limits to what can be permitted.