Following the General Synod decision in February 2020, new provisions on carbon reduction were introduced under the Faculty Jurisdiction (Amendment) Rules 2022 (“the new provisions”) came into force 1 July 2022. This is the revised sixth in the series of posts[1] which update the list of determinations under the revised provisions, here. Judgments before the new provisions were introduced are here.
There has been a total of twenty four consistory court determinations under the new provisions. Approval was granted for a range of heating sources: four examples of heat pump installation; five using some form of electrical heating; ten where the primary source was gas; further four with other modes of heating and one where solar panels provided supplementary power. In a further case, a retrospective faculty for replacement gas boilers was refused although but limited continuation was permitted.
Judgments prior to 1 July 2022
| HEAT PUMPS | |
| Re All Saints Woodham [2022] ECC Gui 1 | Underfloor, Heat pump |
| Re St. Leonard Southoe [2022] ECC Ely 4 | Lighting, solar, ASHP |
| ELECTRICAL HEATING | |
| Re St. Gregory Sudbury [2022] ECC SEI 2 | Quartz halogen |
| GAS HEATING | |
| Re All Saints Harbury [2022] ECC Cov 3 | Radiant panels |
| Re Christ Church Dore [2022] ECC She 2 | Underfloor, Gas |
| Re St. Mark Mitcham [2020] ECC Swk 5 | New gas-fired system |
| Re St. Mary Oxted [2021] ECC Swk 1 | Gas |
| Re St. Mary the Virgin Dedham [2022] ECC Chd 2 | Gas, green tariff |
| Re St. Mary the Virgin Welling [2022] ECC Swk 3. | Replacement gas boiler |
| Re St. Nicolas Great Bookham [2022] ECC Gui 3 | Gas, green tariff |
| Re St. Peter Walsall [2021] ECC Lic 4 | Gas |
| Re St. Thomas and St. Luke Dudley [2021] ECC Wor 2 | Gas, green tariff |
| Re St. Thomas Ashton-in-Makerfield [2020] ECC Liv 1 | Gas |
| OIL | |
| Re St. John the Evangelist Donisthorpe [2021] ECC Lei 1 | Oil |
Comment
The recent post Church of England: Revised “Net Zero ” Routemap (10 July 2026) gives an indication of the approach of the Diocesan Advisory Committees (to 2025) to the the replacement of “oil boilers”.
| 4.2.12 Milestone for Churches and cathedrals: No new oil boiler | |
| No new oil boilers installed in churches and cathedrals after this date. Target date 2025 | |
| % dioceses | |
| Not possible in the near future. Churches continue to submit like for like oil replacements. New oil boilers are installed each year, no appetite in the DAC to address this |
2% |
| DAC keen to support, working with churches to avoid oil boiler installations, but long way to go still, no official policy on this. |
69% |
| DAC has a policy for no new oil boilers. |
21% |
| DAC policy says no new oil boilers, this is being successfully enforced. |
7% |
However, “oil boilers” is not a metric which has a direct equivalent in the Faculty Jurisdiction (Amendment) Rules 2022, which refer to fitting “boilers which do not use fossil fuels” and “boiler replacement using same fuel supply”. Oil-fired heating systems are only referred to in relation to the the work being undertaken “by a person whose work is subject to an accredited certification scheme (as defined in rule 3.1(6))”. Furthermore, it is the diocesan consistory court which determines the conditions under which boiler replacement may be undertaken.
[1] Update: Re St. Mary Magdalene Stoke Bishop [2025] ECC Bri 4 added on 3 November 2026 at 13:58.