Church grants

Church

St Luke’s West Holloway, Hillmarton Road, N7 9JE

Designation

Grade II listed

Total project cost

£90,000

Cloudesley grants

Spring 2020: £40,000
Spring 2022: £10,000 of £29.5k grant

Other funding

Listed Places of Worship Scheme: £13,200

Diocesan grant: £10,000 (+ £10,000 loan)

Church general fund (including fundraising campaign): £16,800

Dates

May 2020: First grant received from Cloudesley
May 2022: Second grant received from Cloudesley
February 2023: Faculty is received
May 2023: Planning permission is received from Islington Council
May 2023: Work gets underway

Contractors used

GroundSun

Background

St Luke’s had underfloor heating fed by two boilers. When one of the boilers broke in 2020, they took the opportunity to install a heat pump. They opted for an air source heat pump as the more affordable option. Their vision was to have a warm welcoming church building, that is heated in a climate friendly way. The heat pump provides the majority of the heating required for the church space. They have also installed PV panels on the roof to generate some of the electricity required for the heat pump and the church at large. They anticipate that the combination of the heat pump and PV panels will dramatically reduce their carbon usage and help the church achieve a net zero target by 2030 or before.

Benefits

• The heat pump is forecast to result in an 84% reduction in their heating carbon footprint. As the grid decarbonises, this reduction should increase.
• It is anticipated that heating bills will be reduced.
• St Luke’s hope that a church that takes its green credentials seriously will be more attractive to the young people of Islington.

Challenges

• The process of applying for planning permission took longer than expected.
• They had to install a slightly larger external plant room than initially planned.
• The delays meant that they experienced two cost increases due to inflation of materials and labour costs.
• There was a delay as it took a while to get the church building group agreement to proceed with the project.

Top tips for other churches

• Undergoing major work, it’s likely you’ll uncover other issues and urgent repairs needed, so make sure you factor this into your cost provisions.
• The church’s architect was project manager and that was vital to the success of the project, however as the office team were onsite most of the time, they became another important point of contact day to day.

The Cloudesley perspective – why did this project gain support?

Heating systems are eligible under the “maintenance of services” aspect of Cloudesley’s Church Object. Going ahead with the heat pump project whilst one of the two boilers continued to work was judged to be a sensible plan, as given the time it takes to plan and raise funds, waiting for the other boiler to fail would have meant the church was without heating for an extended period of time. In addition to ensuring that the church continued to have heating should the remaining boiler fail, the heat pump has a clear environmental benefit and should lead to a significant drop in the church’s carbon footprint.