[Newer figures available here 2017]
The Church of England is split into 42 Diocese, each run by a respective Diocese Board of Finance (DBFs). As registered charities their accounts are published but never compared — until now.
For the first time (in what may become a series) we reveal the diocese performance league tables for 2016, the latest published records extracted from the Charity Commission.
2016 Assets
First up are assets, the full recognised worth of each diocese and we have a new leader! With a superb improvement in asset value we have Oxford overtaking London by a whisker. Southwark has overtaken Chelmsford into third place while in fifth place Chelmsford have pulled ahead of the chasing pack.
Across all Dioceses the general pattern was a superb performance, with a total increase in asset value of £375m and now totalling £4.7bn. Almost as much as that managed by the Church Commissioners. Well done.
Total 2016 = £4,741,086,126
Total 2014/15 = £4,365,843,000
Increase = £375,243,126
2016 Income
Diocese income is primarily from Parish Share (or Common Fund or Centenary Fund as the name preferred by each Diocese) plus investment income. Here the strength of population size and regional income levels really comes into their own with London striding ahead and Southwark in south London coming in third. Oxford though made a good second place and leading for the Province of York we have West Yorkshire & the Dales in fifth.
In total £542,478,110 received across all Diocese.
In order though to compare relative parish generosity (or squeezing depending on your views) we have also compiled the Parish Share winners.
2016 Parish Share
Total = £327,599,000
The top four remain the same but some interesting changes appear lower down the top 10. Chichester have done an excellent job on raising parish funds showing either generosity or a lack of income from investments. By this measure the performance of Lichfield is reversed, where under half of income came from parishes.
2016 Expenditure
All this charitable income should be spent rather than hoarded so the Top 10 of Expenditure are:
Total = £506,632,933
Again similar names but a few surprise entries. West Yorkshire were spending heavily in third while Manchester also made an appearance in a top 10.
2016 Net Income
Now we have income and expenditure we can now show Profits (ok Net Income). These figures are a little more complicated because some Diocese include investment income as part of Net Income and some split it out.
(Message to Diocese Finance Officers –please could you all adopt the same accounting layout? It would help immensely. Thanks)
Anyway, the Top 10 are:
New entries! Derby pop up a surprise second, Gloucester in fifth. Portsmouth, Ely and Durham also appear for the first time, so well done for financial management.
The total Net Income across all Diocese is £89,091,835
Cathedral Funding Highest & Lowest
As a side exercise while the parlous state of Cathedral funding is in the news we also decided to track how much each Diocese gave to their respective mother church. In 1994 the Archbishops Commission’ report ‘Heritage & Renewal’ suggested Diocese and Cathedrals should agree a ‘Balance of Payments’, given the healthy assets and incomes of the Diocese what does cathedral generosity show? Oh dear.
The top five providers of funding to cathedrals are:
Yes, a Diocese would have needed to only donate £4,001 to make the top five. At the bottom of the table:
So these poor Dioceses actually took money from the cathedral rather than made grants to them. In fact the Cathedrals gave all Diocese a total of
-£132,759.
Not very generous?
Conclusion
So to conclude, across all Diocese the 2016 figures are:
Total Assets = £4.74bn
Asset Increase in 1 year =£375m
Operating Income =£542m
Expenditure =£507m
Net Income =£89m
So the next time a Diocese comes to you claiming poverty check the numbers. If anyone wants the full data tables drop me a comment.
