Guided by our research report Putting it Off and our experience with a practical maintenance project in Bath, our current activities include:

  • Campaigning for better maintenance at a national level
  • Running schemes to improve the maintenance of church buildings
  • Providing maintenance courses and visits with local authorities

Campaigning

We advocate for maintenance to be given its proper place in conservation policy. We try to influence the policies of a wide range of organisations including:

  • Historic England (HE), Historic Environment Scotland(HES), Cadw and the Northern Ireland Executive
  • The Heritage Lottery Fund
  • The Health & Safety Executive

We give evidence to assorted Government reviews, such as those on the financing of Church Repairs, HE and HLF.

We are active members of the Heritage Alliance’s Historic Religious Buildings Alliance and the Europe-wide Future for Religious Heritage.

For details of recent submissions, please see our News page.

Church Maintenance Schemes

We organise schemes with Church of England Dioceses to make it easier for parishes to get help with maintaining their churches.

The GutterClear scheme has been in operation since 2007 in the Diocese of Gloucester. Under the scheme, parishes can call in professional maintenance visits for their rainwater goods from any of the contractors accredited under the scheme. A standard specification and terms and conditions, but the price is set by negotiation between the parish and the contractor.

A report on the first three years of operation of GutterClear is available on request to Maintain.

The scheme is open to places of worship of all faiths and denominations.

A similar scheme operates in the Diocese of Chelmsford

Maintenance Courses and Visits

We organise special one-off maintenance events for local authorities, usually in connection with a Townscape Heritage Initiative.

The format of these is variable but usually consists of a presentation to local property owners on maintenance issues, followed by a walkabout to illustrate the issues in practice. These events are individually designed for the unique circumstances and building types of the THI area, and have been held in Wolverhampton, Burslem (Stoke-on- Trent) and Gloucester.

Contact us if you would be interested in organising one of these events.

Other Activities

Falling Masonry

We keep a record of incidents in which parts of badly-maintained buildings fall into the street: click here to go to the relevant page.