General Trustees building and property resources

Guidance and resources from the Church of Scotland's General Trustees are available to support the management and maintenance of church buildings and properties.

This information is designed to support congregations and those responsible for building upkeep, ensuring proper stewardship and compliance. By providing these resources, the General Trustees aim to assist congregations in effectively managing their properties, promoting sustainability, and ensuring appropriate protection against potential risks.

Property register

The property register used by congregational Fabric Conveners for annual inspection and return to Presbytery has been substantially amended. The new format is designed to make inspections and returns at the appropriate times significantly easier. The amended register, which should be used for church and hall buildings only, can be completed on-line, saved as a document, and e-mailed as an attachment to Presbytery. Alternatively, the register can be printed off and completed by hand. The amended Manse Condition Schedule should be utilised when making annual inspections and returns for manses. Fabric Conveners should read the introductory and guidance notes for both the Property Register and the Manse Condition Schedule before completing the documents.

The Making it Happen document is a very useful aid to Fabric Conveners, covering areas such as buildings and ground maintenance, accessibility issues, upgrading, fire protection, and security systems. For more information, please contact us.

Energy conservation

The Church of Scotland has taken a leading role in the energy conservation field and the General Trustees offer subsidies to encourage congregations to obtain a survey from their heating consultant. The trustees have also negotiated arrangements in consultation with their energy consultant, SSE, which in many instances have resulted in substantial savings in costs to congregations for gas and electricity supplies. For further information, please email gtenergy@churchofscotland.org.uk.

The Eco-Congregation Programme

This environmental programme offers free resources and support to congregations wishing to incorporate environmental care more widely into their church life and mission. The resources support existing activities such as worship, teaching, children's and youthwork, maintaining buildings and grounds and engaging with the wider community. Visit their website at www.ecocongregation.org/scotland .

Better Heating Scheme

Under the Better Heating Scheme, which is administered by the Church of Scotland General Trustees, congregations can obtain, for a modest fee, skilled advice on how to save money on heating bills and improving the standard of comfort in buildings. You can download these guides for more information on this service, including costs, subsidies, and points to note, as well as heating tips for property conveners.

Advice on church lighting

For advice on lighting, please contact the General Trustees department at gentrustees@churchofscotland.org.uk.

Sound system consultant

The General Trustees have appointed a consultant to advise on audio visual installations. "For further information, please e-mail gentrustees@churchofscotland.org.uk.

Church Buildings Maintenance in Scotland

The Church Buildings Maintenance in Scotland project is supported by the Church of Scotland, Bishops' Conference of Scotland, the Scottish Episcopal Church, and Historic Scotland. Its website provides a range of modules and resources for people involved in maintaining church buildings, including learning modules on types and fabric. It can be found here.

Insurance

It is essential that all buildings used by congregations such as churches, halls, manses and the like are adequately insured as this is an aspect of good stewardship and is something which all charity trustees are expected to have in place.

The 2013 General Assembly instructed all Financial Boards and Courts of congregations to insure all ecclesiastical buildings for which they are responsible (irrespective of who owns the buildings) and to take up the covers for public liability, employers' liability, breach of duty, and trustee indemnity and for contents through the Scheme offered by the Church of Scotland Insurance Services Ltd

The Scheme offers a comprehensive package-type cover incorporating a wide range of automatic insurance provisions sufficient to meet the usual ecclesiastical activities of congregations in respect of buildings and liabilities. Also included are covers for church and hall contents, loss of revenue, money, personal accident, and other risks. Optional covers such as Engineering are available and the Scheme can allow the standard package limits to be extended upon request.

For further information and for answers to insurance enquiries, please contact: The Church of Scotland Insurance Services Ltd, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN, Telephone: 0131 220 4119 or visit the Church of Scotland Insurance Services Ltd website.

Glebes

Fabric and Finance

Forms are available in Word and PDF format. The new General Application Form replaces the old Forms A and C and is designed to accept a combination of applications including alterations to buildings and applications for financial assistance from the Central Fabric Fund

Manses

Manse Condition Schedule

The manse condition schedule, along with guidelines and regulations for manses, is intended to assist congregations in keeping up to date with the maintenance and repair of manses.

Residential Letting of Manses and Other Domestic Properties

When a manse or other residential property such as a church officer's house becomes vacant, a Financial Board should consider whether to let it. Properties usually benefit from being occupied and rent can provide a useful revenue stream for the congregation for fabric purposes.

To be valid, residential leases of properties owned by the General Trustees must run in their name as landlords. In view of the administrative burdens associated with the letting of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) the Trustees will not approve lets to more than two unconnected persons.

The following notes are designed to give an overview of the matters which need to be considered.

General papers

Planning

Hall Lets Guidance

Introduction

This content has been prepared by the General Trustee's Presbytery Support and Buildings Committee (PSB) to advise congregations on how to generate income from properties retained through Presbytery Mission Planning. Experiences gained through Mission Planning have led to a sense that congregations often undercharge third parties for the use of hall spaces.

The September PSB Committee met in Stirling. Before the monthly committee meeting the GTs held a workshop on income generation in Church of Scotland buildings. Guest speakers from three congregations were invited to speak at the workshop. The speakers were chosen because the congregations they represented had a track record of income generation from their premises. The following guidance attempts to capture some of the main areas of advice coming from this workshop.

Guidance

(a) Tariffs

Many congregations are uncomfortable with charging market rents for users of their buildings. They may feel like it is not the Church's place to be profiting from the community and they may wish to support local groups in their work. However, if a congregation is in a position where, by charging such low rates, they are effectively subsidising the work of other organisations, this not only fails to address the financial realities that the national church is facing, it is also problematic from a Charity Law perspective. The recommendation from the workshop is to be clear and transparent about your charging strategy so building users feel as though they are being treated fairly. The following tariffs are recommended:

Tariff 1

  1. Target Users: External groups and organisations, businesses, charities who do not have a clear working relationship with the congregation.
  1. Rate: A market rate, based on comparisons with other similar facilities in the wider community of a similar size and standard. Alternatively, commission a consultant to advise on a suitable rate.

Tariff 2

  1. Target Users: Groups linked to the congregation or charities who have a close working relationship with the congregation and whose charitable purposes align with that of the Church of Scotland. This therefore could be considered an extension of the mission of the congregation.
  1. Rate: Covering costs with a modest surplus. At the very least the congregation should gain an understanding of the costs of providing a space and charge an hourly rate at this level. Additionally, it is recommended that a modest profit margin or surplus be applied to support the work of the congregation in the community.

Tariff 3

  1. Target Users: Congregation activities only.
  1. Rate: Free at the point of use.

(b) Facilitating Hall Lets

Charges should be applied to include set up and clear up time, not just the time the user occupied the space. An amount should be included to cover the value added by staff or volunteers who set up and clear up after lets (based either on actual costs or national minimum wage if volunteers).

(c) Service

If the service is good then it is only right to reflect this in the hire charge. It may be that a congregation's buildings have been invested in and the quality of space is high. It may be that the audio / visual facilities or catering services provided by the congregation are better than the competition. In such instances the congregation should feel able to charge a higher rate than those facilities in the community which offer less well-maintained or equipped spaces.

(d) Community Engagement and Partnership

Congregations may benefit from engaging with the community to find out what services it requires. For example, it could be that improved audio / visual facilities, greater flexibility of space or longer opening hours would bring more users into the building. Equally, the congregation could benefit from partnering with other community groups or community buildings where the spaces complement each other. "You can't do everything yourself, so partner with people who can".

(e) Staff

Employ staff where possible. Whilst this comes at a cost to the congregation, the commitment and time of a paid staff member may be required if the congregation aspire to providing a high-level service.

Hall Lets Rates Calculator

The GTs have provided a Hall Lets Rates Calculator template for use by congregations.

Congregations should update the figures in the template to reflect their actual costs.

Congregations are encouraged to apply a profit margin on top of the figure to support their mission and outreach.

The calculation in the template suggests that for a medium sized hall space, the required hourly rate simply to cover the costs of providing the space would be in the region of £20 per hour. This is based on the building being available (not necessarily in use) for 30 hours per week by either the congregation or third parties.