Diocesan Stipends Funds

Until 1976 many incumbents received income from parish glebe assets which belonged to the incumbent for as long as they were in post. Inevitably some parishes were much wealthier than others in respect of glebe so it was decided that by the Endowment and Glebe Measure 1976 all glebe assets would be transferred into the care and management of the dioceses as endowment funds within the DSF, the intention being that the income could be spread equitably amongst the clergy. DSF then became the responsibility of Diocesan Boards of Finance (DBFs) rather than the Church Commissioners.

Some dioceses have managed DSF more actively and effectively than others. Investment returns over the years have enabled some dioceses to increase the capital value of DSFs well above inflation even after using income for the payment of clergy stipends. In 2016 General Synod passed a measure which allowed DBFs to adopt Total Return Accounting (TRA); this allowed them to transfer capital gains on DSFs to the income account, under strict actuarial rules that would ensure that capital values, after allowing for inflation, would be maintained for future generations.

However since 2016 and by 2024 (the most recent year for which accounts are published) only fifteen dioceses have adopted TRA; only ten dioceses are generating reasonable income from DSF and only eighteen are making reasonable investment gains on DSF. Fewer than sixteen dioceses are making any significant use of DSF to pay stipends, and some of these have even used DSF for purposes other than stipends, which is unlawful.

	2021		2022		2023		2024
	£	%	£	%	£	%	£	%
Value at 1st Jan	1,488,031		1,646,072		1,630,203		1,656,692
Income	42,546	2.9	42,431	2.6	43,304	2.7	36,719	2.2
Investment Gain	153,332	10.3	2,857	0.2	55,551	3.4	102,115	6.2
Expenditure on Stipends	47,936	3.3	47,848	2.8	50,250	3.1	60,952	3.7
Value at 31st Dec	1,646,072		1,630,203		1,656,692		1,737,126

Those dioceses that have invested DSF effectively have generated at least 3.5% income and/or made at least 5% investment gains; the 2022 figures reflect the difficult market in that year.

DSF is by far the largest endowment fund held by most dioceses and should be an important source of funds for paying parish clergy stipends. Many dioceses are neglecting these funds which total some £1.7 billion. A spreadsheet showing how dioceses have invested and are committing their stipends funds is at the top of this page.

Please look at the spreadsheet and see how your diocese is managing their DSF.  Compare with other dioceses what percentage return they are getting.  See if they are using Total Return Accounting in order to get maximum benefit from their DSF.  And see how much of the total investment return is actually being use to help with stipends.

If all dioceses adopted TRA and invested DSF effectively a further £62m could be generated to pay clergy stipends, which would pay for 1,000 more clergy.

Summary of DSF Performance 2024

15 Dioceses adopted TRA by 2024 (figure in brackets is % of DSF applied to Stipends)

• Gloucester (20.8%) – Gloucester made a one-off gain on the sale of glebe property in 2024
• Oxford (9.2%)
• Coventry (7.1%)
• Hereford (5.3%)
• Truro (4.6%)
• Leicester (4.0%)
• Bath & Wells (3.7%)
• Chelmsford (3.5%)
• Rochester (3.5%)
• Lincoln (3.4%)
• St Albans (3.2%) 
• Exeter (2.2%)
• Worcester (1.6%)
• Norwich (1.2%)
• Salisbury (0.7%)

Only four dioceses made good use of TRA by applying a reasonable % to stipends.

Only two other Dioceses showed a good return on investment on DSF and applied this income to stipends

• Manchester (21%) 
• Blackburn (12%) 

These are particularly high rates of return which are not explained in the notes to the DBF accounts. 

The other 23* dioceses do not show DSF income in a separate fund and/or made a return on investment of less than 3.0% in 2024. However there must be a note of caution because, no doubt, some dioceses include investment income from DSF in an overall “Income from Investments” figure in their accounts and don’t show any detail. This is another downside of having 40 different ways of presenting accounts rather than there being one proper standard.

* Diocese of Europe and Diocese of Sodor & Man do not have DSF.

Possible Actions You Can Take

• Challenge those dioceses that are on the low income and/or low gains list
• Challenge those dioceses that are failing to use DSF to pay parish clergy stipends
• Ask those dioceses that do not adopt TRA, why they are ignoring this important facility which can generate more funds for parish clergy stipends
• Seek transparency from those dioceses using TRA to show how income from DSF has been used within the parish share calculations
• Ask these dioceses why they have not used proceeds from TRA to either (i) appoint more clergy or (ii) reduce parish share demand
• Challenge any of these dioceses which are cutting clergy and/or restructuring and claiming that this is for financial reasons.
• Keep some sort of data bank on the different dioceses and their practice.  

When the General Synod met in February 2023, Save the Parish held a very successful ‘fringe’ event.  A range of Synod members, including John Spence, the then Church of England’s Head of Finance, and his then deputy came to hear what three of our financial scrutiny team had to say about finance and figures in the Church, and improving the husbandry of a charity’s financial resources.  If you would like to watch it for yourself – you can find it online at https://youtu.be/45nrep1IvWk

(Updated 19/12/2025)