DIOCESE OF TRURO KEPT AFLOAT BY GRANTS AND PROPERTY SALES: 2026 BUDGET ANALYSIS

Stephen Billyeald, former Managing Director of Ryman Group plc and a member of Save The Parish's national Financial Scrutiny Group analyses the Diocese of Truro 2026 draft budget (click here to read the papers). He writes:
 
Truro Diocesan Board of Finance (TDBF) has shown an operating deficit on Unrestricted Funds every year from 2021 to 2024 totalling £11 million over the four years. A deficit of £3.4 million is forecast for 2025 and £4.5 million deficit is budgeted for 2026.

Restricted Funds have broken even at the operating level over the four years but the fund balance has declined by £5 million as a result of transfers to Unrestricted Funds. In the same period £3.1 million was received from the Archbishops’ Council as grants and over £3m was received from the sale of properties.

Truro DBF has been kept afloat overall by grants from the Archbishops' Council and sale of properties. This situation is unsustainable.

2026 Budget

The budget does not provide any evidence that TDBF is likely to reduce the level of deficit in the near future and it can only be a matter of time before it runs out of reserves and collapses into administration.

I have been sent a copy of a draft budget speech to be presented by a Truro Diocesan Synod member making five solid points, with which I concur. He is correct in saying that the Diocesan Stipends Fund income can only lawfully be spent on parish clergy stipends and closely related costs such as NI, pensions and housing; this leads DBFs to divert funds raised from parish share (Mission and Ministry Fund) into diocesan costs and projects (TDBF is not the only diocese to adopt this approach).

Most PCCs do not realise that up to 60% of their parish share donations are not being used for their prime purpose of funding parish clergy. It seems counter-productive to reduce the number of parish clergy whilst increasing the number of diocesan staff when the aim is to have a “mission led budget”. Lowest Income Community Fund (LICF) grants should be used to support parishes, not to fund increases in diocesan staff.

Conclusion

Recent annual accounts and current forecasts and budgets suggest that TDBF, in its current form, is financially unsustainable. There is no evidence to suggest that a turnaround will be achieved before financial reserves are exhausted.

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