Church of England sees £1.3bn drop in investments

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 26 May 2009

The Church of England lost £1.3bn on its investment in 2008 according to the latest annual accounts from the Church Commissioners for England.

Its property and assets have shrunk by nearly a fifth from £5.7bn to £4.4bn, however a spokesman for the Church Commissioners said it intended to continue planned levels of support for the Church of England (CofE) dioceses through to the end of 2013. The position will be reviewed at the end of 2009.

Last year the CoFE paid out £192.7m to support the Church.

Andrew Brown, secretary to the Church Commissioners, said: “In a very difficult financial situation, we believe the Commissioners have achieved creditable returns for our beneficiaries.

“Our policy of holding the majority of our assets in shares and property has benefited the fund’s performance in nine of the last ten years. Relative performance suffered in 2008 as we held very few bonds during the year but weighted the fund towards real assets to match our - mainly salary-related - liabilities. We continue to diversify the nature and type of our investments.”

Meanwhile, the appointment of the CoFE's first director of investment is still ongoing.

Brown said the decision to create such a role followed an increasingly popular trend already embraced by the Cambridge and Oxford College funds, several endownment funds, and the Wellcome Trust and Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Who's Who: Vibeka Mair

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