Question

To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to the Diocese of Liverpool's Transforming Wigan bid document, and the expectation expressed in paragraph 76 of that document that there would be a real-terms increase in annual giving of £500,000, what figure has been reported against that target to the Archbishops’ Council Strategic Development Unit in performance reporting on Strategic Development Fund projects.

Based on learning from the project, the focus of this objective was changed to focus on the long term sustainability of the deanery – to clear the parish share backlog of the deanery with the diocese, to establish an annual balanced budget that is fully funded by the deanery, and to develop a deanery giving scheme focused on the mission, engaging more people in the parish, and increasing overall giving year-on-year. This was on track at the end of 2019, at which point Wigan had cleared its historic backlog. Since then, Covid has had a significant impact, and the deanery is seeking to rebuild its financial position. A final evaluation of the project has been commissioned and should be provided internally to the Strategic Investment Board by the end of the year. More information about the Transforming Wigan project is available from the Diocese of Liverpool here: https://liverpool.anglican.org/about-us/liverpool-dbf/sdf-projects/transforming-wigan/