The Church of England’s endowment fund grew to £11.6bn last year, new data shows, marking its 17th consecutive year of growth.
The fund delivered an 8% return last year, down on the 10.3% achieved in 2024, the Church Commissioners’ accounts for 2025 show, and lower than its 10-year average return of 8.6%.
Managed by the Church Commissioners, the charitable fund is the second largest in England and Wales after Wellcome’s and contributes around a fifth towards the church’s total annual running costs.
Poppy Allonby, chief investment officer at the Church Commissioners, attributed the 8% return to “strong absolute performance in public markets”.
“At the same time, we were able to successfully manage portfolio liquidity in order to fund near-term distributions,” she said.
“We achieved these results whilst maintaining a focus on responsible investment and last year we were recognised for our work on both human rights data and sustainability across our real estate portfolio.”
Big rise in expenditure
The accounts show that the Church Commissioners recorded a total income of £213m last year (2024: £207m).
Its total expenditure increased by £232m year on year to £602m, largely due to a £98.6m rise in pre-1998 clergy pensions expenditure and the recognition of £137m for the national redress scheme.
Meanwhile, it gave £203m to support dioceses and local churches in England (2024: £202m) and £52.9m to support bishops’ and archbishops’ ministry (2024: £55.3m).
Announced in 2023 and approved in 2025, the £150m national redress scheme aims to offer recognition to victims and survivors of abuse perpetrated by the Church of England.
The scheme is set to open to applicants in the latter part of 2026 and will run until 2030.
The accounts reveal that the Church Commissioners spent £7.5m on safeguarding in 2025, an increase from £7m in 2024, to fund work including its response to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.
“This includes working with dedicated diocesan, cathedral and parish safeguarding officers to foster healthy safeguarding cultures and uphold the national safeguarding standards to make the Church of England a safer place for everyone,” the accounts read.
They add that funding enabled the interim support scheme – established by the Archbishops’ Council to improve the church’s response to survivors of church-related abuse – to help 95 victims and survivors with urgent, short-term support.
Achieving net-zero carbon by 2030
The accounts say that to support the church’s net-zero carbon goal by 2030, the Church Commissioners earmarked up to £190m to drive delivery against its action plan.
“The end of 2025 marked the conclusion of the programme’s first three-year phase, which deployed £27.5m towards demonstrator projects, capacity building and essential interventions,” they read.
“The programme has successfully leveraged approximately £11m in external funding from government grants, trusts and local fundraising, alongside a further £5.8m from dioceses.”
Every diocese received funding to establish capacity, creating a network of 58 diocesan net-zero carbon roles, while over a third of churches are now engaged with the “eco church initiative”.
“While early evidence shows that churches receiving grant support are beginning to reduce the carbon pollution from heating, lighting and powering their buildings, we recognise that this is a long-term journey,” the accounts say.
They add that the 2030 ambition remains “a bold and faithful milestone that has driven significant change across the church”.
“Independent forecasting indicates that meaningful reductions are achievable over this decade, with progress accelerating as systems and funding mature.
“The Church Commissioners remains committed to long-term investment to help parishes and dioceses make meaningful, lasting progress.”
