Church Commissioners The right hon. Member for Meriden,
representing the Church Commissioners, was asked— Church Investors
Group Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab) 3. To ask the
right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church
Commissioners, what proposals the Church Commissioners have as part
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Church Commissioners
The right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church
Commissioners, was asked—
Church Investors Group
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3. To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden,
representing the Church Commissioners, what proposals
the Church Commissioners have as part of the Church
Investors Group for holding businesses to account on
executive pay and climate change
measures. [904240]
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The Church Investors Group manages a total fund of £17
billion, approximately £8 billion of which represents
the Church Commissioners’ assets. The commissioners
have discharged their stewardship responsibilities for
a long time by voting on issues including executive
remuneration and climate change, and, most recently,
adding to the criteria gender diversity on boards, the
disclosure of company pay ratios, and the payment of at
least the living wage to staff.
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Will the right hon. Lady set out in a little more
detail the approach that the Church Commissioners are
taking to ensure that businesses take the issue of
climate change very seriously?
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That is one of the stewardship responsibilities, and
commissioners will vote against chairs of companies if
they are assessed as not having made sufficient
progress in addressing climate change. I am pleased to
be able to share the good news that when a resolution
was filed by the Church Commissioners and the New York
State Comptroller asking Exxon to report on how its
business model would help to tackle climate change,
62.3% of shareholders voted in favour of it despite
opposition from the board.
Wi-Fi and Broadband
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4. To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing
the Church Commissioners, what plans the Church of
England has to make its buildings available for
broadcasting (a) wi-fi and (b) broadband signal to
improve connectivity in rural areas. [904241]
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5. To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing
the Church Commissioners, what plans the Church of
England has to make its buildings available for
broadcasting (a) wi-fi and (b) broadband signal to
improve connectivity in rural areas; and if she will make
a statement. [904243]
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The Church of England recently signed an accord with the
Government to enable churches to improve broadband and
mobile connectivity, particularly in rural areas. It sets
out how the Church can collaborate with providers to help
to achieve that.
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The tower of St Peter in Drayton, for example, could
really help with connectivity in an area that suffers
from a lack of connectivity. Could my right hon. Friend
give my constituents some guidance as to how best to find
their way through the planning system, to help them make
an application in relation to the church?
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My hon. Friend’s constituency has seen a significant
improvement in broadband coverage, which is currently at
95.5%—up from 19% in 2010. However, there are undoubtedly
not spots, and I encourage her to get churches to contact
Church House to find out how they can avail themselves of
this new opportunity. In this accord, the Church has
reached agreement with broadband providers to provide a
standard contract to make that easy. I pay tribute to the
Secretary of State at the Department for Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport and the Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State at the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, , for this
initiative on working together to get our rural and urban
mobile and broadband not spots covered.
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I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for her part in
securing the accord. On International Women’s Day, it
seems appropriate to mention Lady St Mary church in
Wareham, in my constituency, which is already installing
telecommunications equipment in its—or her, I should
say—tower. What more can my right hon. Friend do to
encourage others to follow where Wareham and Dorset are
leading?
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My hon. Friend is doing a good job of demonstrating to
the whole House the difference it can make when we, as
Members of Parliament, make our constituents in not spots
aware of this new agreement. If Members have churches
with tall towers or spires, these can be used to bounce
the broadband signal into existing not spots. The
example, on International Women’s Day, of the church he
refers to gives encouragement to all. I know that the
Isle of Purbeck suffers from poorer coverage, and I would
encourage him to get the churches in his constituency to
apply too.
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I hear what the right hon. Lady says, but will she
include in the work that the Church is doing churches
that have been closed? They are often in the most rural
and isolated areas, and their status is sometimes
unclear. This could be a very important way in which we
could make use of these buildings.
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The Church of England has put its entire assets at the
disposal of the Government to help crack the problem of
the not spots—that includes its churches, its schools and
its land, where necessary. For example, we can beam a
signal from a church spire to the brow of a hill—the land
may belong to the Church—down into the next village,
which does not have a signal, and thereby get coverage.
Those assets are all bound up in this accord.
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I thank the right hon. Lady for her responses. It is
really good news that the Church of England is making its
buildings available for this purpose. However, does she
agree that it is equally important that historical
artefacts, which can be displayed tremendously in small
parishes in rural communities that have dedicated Royal
British Legion facilities, could also be displayed in
buildings owned by the Church of England across the whole
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland?
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This new accord on wi-fi and mobile coverage will make
the churches a hot spot, not a not spot, in communities.
That may well bring in people who want to have the
benefit of a good signal and, by the way, to discover the
wonderful heritage and artefacts that the churches offer.
I should add that although this accord has been signed
with the Church of England, the Government want to offer
the same opportunity to other denominations, because the
aim is universal coverage.
Environmental Taxation Funding
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7. To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden,
representing the Church Commissioners, what
steps are being taken to encourage churches and
other religious institutions to apply for
funding from environmental
taxation. [904245]
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The national Church institutions provide advice
to churches and cathedrals on what funding is
available. The Church Buildings Council is also
able to advise parishes on a number of other
funds that are available besides the landfill
communities fund, which is the principal
source, such as the new plastic bag tax fund.
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Many of the churches and other religious
buildings that I am aware of are relatively
ignorant about the large amount of money from
landfill tax that Entrust controls. If the
Churches and religious institutions are engaged
in broader community activities, they will
qualify for such funds. Could that be made more
widely known?
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The fact that the hon. Gentleman has made us
aware of that fact in the House, and that it
will be recorded in Hansard, is extremely
helpful. The landfill communities fund has
spent £106 million on the restoration of places
of worship since it was created, but the
relatively new plastic bags tax fund is another
source of funds for places of worship in our
constituencies and goes beyond the 10-mile
radius from a landfill site, which is a
constraint on the landfill fund.
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We have a large number of church buildings in
Scotland, and the burden of maintaining them is
onerous for the Churches that own them. Will
those Churches be able to apply for similar
funding north of the border?
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I am not responsible for the Church in
Scotland. The Church Estates Commissioner is
responsible only for the Church of England, but
I am perfectly prepared to make inquiries on
the hon. Gentleman’s behalf with the Church of
Scotland.
Homeless People
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8. To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden,
representing the Church Commissioners, what steps
the Church of England is taking to support
homeless people. [904247]
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The Church of England has many local parish-based
initiatives to support the homeless. The Church
also partners with organisations nationally,
including Crisis. I think it will be of interest
to Members to know that 3,000 people took shelter
in churches last winter. That was 53% up on the
year before, and I strongly suspect that that
number will increase, given the severity of the
winter that we have just experienced.
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I quote:
“For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I
was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I
needed clothes and you did not clothe me”.
We cannot wait until 2027 to see homelessness
eliminated, and I would like to know how the
Church of England will use its estate more to
ensure that people have shelter in the coming
year.
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The hon. Lady reads that verse, which always
challenges me. One day, when I meet my maker and
he asks me, “When I was homeless, did you shelter
me?” I have to be able to answer, and the best
answer that I can give relates to the remarkable
growing initiative within the Church for night
shelters. During the recent cold snap, churches
were often mentioned in the news as places where
homeless people could shelter from the
conditions, and I pay tribute to my former
headmistress, who helped to set up a night
shelter at Holy Trinity, Bishop’s Stortford. I
went to see for myself how the church had been
adapted, with a toilet and shower to make the
accommodation suitable, and how volunteers
prepared hot meals and were trained to look after
the homeless people who came to take shelter.
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