In the February edition of The Month, I gave details of PCC expenditure in 2007 under the headline “Unravelling PCC costs”. The routine costs of keeping a parish going week by week proved to be as significant as the Parish Share or the special building project. Routine expenditure in 2007 totalled £10.6m; a pie chart gave details.
This leads us to the concept of indicators. Is there some way in which the expenditure in different parishes can be compared even though they vary so much in size and circumstances? We are quite used to indicators in other situations. The simple red light which comes on if there is a fault or the temperature is too low; the temperature gauge in a car which gives better quality information than a simple red warning light; or the speedometer which helps us judge whether we are at risk of exceeding the speed limit.
In The Month, we have looked at patterns of church attendance. Using a combination of Sunday and Weekday attendance and Electoral Rolls we estimate our active adult membership totals about 40,000. Parishes will be aware of their own membership estimate where this is a factor in deciding Parish Shares. The total charitable giving by PCCs in 2007 was £1.64m so, with an adult membership of 40,000, is equivalent to an average of 79p per member per week. Using this simple indicator how does your parish compare?
When the routine PCC expenditure of £10.6m is treated in this way we obtain an average of £5.10 per member per week but with a variation between parishes. This variation seems not to relate to whether a parish serves an affluent as opposed to a deprived area, nor to whether a parish has a large or a small membership. Whilst it is slightly higher in our East London parishes, it mainly seems to indicate activity levels in a parish and the availability of funds. For two-thirds of parishes normal spending is between £2.75 and £6.75 per member per week with a median of £4.10. We often find that parishes with expenditure near the top of this range benefit from very generous and committed giving whilst parishes at the low end often have very tight budgets. The lesson for all of us is that, in addition to Parish Share, it costs around £5 per member per week to heat, light and insure our buildings, give to charity, and fund all our normal activities.
Parishes interested in such an analysis of their finances may contact the Parish Finance Office (01245 294430) for more information.