Consultation on Fairer Share

Our DBF Chairman, Nigel Salisbury writes: 

"In 2019 a group under the leadership of Bishop’s Council and Finance Committee member Rosemary Cook, and with support from other parish and Diocesan representatives, began a review of the Fairer Share system with the intention of addressing some of the perceived anomalies of the current system and looking at alternative approaches.     

The output of their report was shared with Diocesan Synod in February 2020, but with the start of the pandemic shortly afterwards, it was felt the time wasn’t right to implement any major changes to the system at that stage, and as you will be aware parishes have been asked to pay their Share for both 2021 and 2022 based on the current formula and their 2019 count numbers.  

As we continue to address the financial consequences of lockdown, and Covid generally, at both parish and Diocesan level, and having published the budget and Share request for 2022, we are now also launching a consultation on Fairer Share so that decisions can be taken once the new Bishop is in place during 2022 for likely implementation in 2023."  

The first stage of the consultation takes the form of a survey – an online questionnaire.  

We are asking each PCC to find time to discuss this either in a regular meeting or by other means that works for you locally.   

The survey will be sent soon to PCC Secretaries (with PCC Treasurers and Incumbents copied for information) and it asks the PCC to think about the core principles behind the three limbs of our current Fairer Share system and whether or not PCCs still support them.  

The closing date for PCC submissions and feedback is Sunday 30th January 2022. After this, we will prepare an update for Diocesan Synod in February and take forward the next stages of consultation so that we are ready to implement any changes in time for Share requests for 2023.