With tens of thousands of crimes committed on church property in recent years, the Alliance is urging the government to secure our spiritual and community heritage, says Mo Metcalf-Fisher for My Countryside magazine.
Since 2019, the Countryside Alliance has been shining a spotlight on the shocking level of crime carried out against churches across the United Kingdom and demanding action in the fight back against heritage crime.
Churches are the beating heart of many rural towns and villages. Irrespective of faith, they are meant to be places of sanctity, solace and refuge, serving not only as places of worship, but as vital spaces for an array of community events.
Increasingly, however, they are being subjected to awful acts of crime, ranging from theft and burglary to violence and arson, on a regular basis.
It is for this reason that we have acted on the concerns of our members and supporters and spearheaded a national investigation; the findings of which have caused shockwaves in the national media and across Westminster.
Our most recent investigation revealed that from 2022 to 2024, over 9,000 crimes have been committed on church property as well as other religious premises.
Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were made to all of the UK’s 45 territorial police forces. We were provided with figures by 33 of those police forces. They show there were 9,148 records of theft, burglary, criminal damage, vandalism and assault from January 2022 to December 2024.
This means that, on average, at least eight crimes took place at churches every single day over the three-year period. This is an appalling statistic.
period. This is an appalling statistic. There were 179 lead and metal thefts recorded, along with 3,758 other thefts and burglaries, 3,237 incidents of criminal damage, vandalism and arson, and 1,974 cases of violence.
The worst-hit areas were West Yorkshire, with 1,121 crimes recorded, followed by Kent (with 655 recorded crimes) and Greater Manchester (with 642 recorded crimes).
Our full set of data goes as far back as 2017. A staggering total of 39,544 crimes have been recorded by police, with 15,506 thefts, 11,253 cases of criminal damage and arson, and 4,568 cases of violence.
We cannot allow these cherished places to continue to be unprotected against the machinations of criminals.
As well as calling on the public to assist police by reporting suspicious activity, we have urged the government to extend and guarantee future funding and promotion of the Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme, provided free of charge by the Home Office to protect places of worship and associated community centres in England and Wales. Additionally, we have joined others, including the National Churches Trust, in calling for the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme, a lifeline for historic churches, to be made permanent.