The Home Office reports that up to £73.4m will be available in 2026 to 2027 through the Home Office’s protective security schemes for Jewish, Muslim and other faith sites; which typically has gone on equipment such as anti-ram bollards, video surveillance, fencing, intruder alarms and floodlights.
Up to £28.4m will be available through the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant, which is managed by the charity the Community Security Trust (CST), for use typically at synagogues, Jewish schools and community centres.
Up to £40m will be available through the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme, which supports mosques, Muslim schools and community centres. Eligible bodies can apply on a rolling basis with the Home Office. Meanwhile the Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme, for non-Jewish or Muslim faiths, will receive an uplift of £1.5m, bringing the total available to protect Christian, Hindu, Sikh, and other faith sites to a record £5m. The next application window for this scheme will open later this year.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “Nobody should be forced to live a smaller life in this country because of their faith. The funding we have announced today will protect places of worship, faith-based schools and community centres across the country. This government will never tolerate religious hatred or intimidation.”
And Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “We are ensuring record funding to protect faith communities all across the UK. This goes further than cameras and alarms, it’s about restoring peace of mind and sending the message: religious persecution and intolerance has no place in Britain.”
Background
According to the Home Office, hate crime sits at unacceptable levels across the UK. The Home Office points to the CST’s latest Antisemitic Incidents Report 2025, published in February, covering the physical and online worlds, showing 3,700 instances of anti-Jewish hate across the UK in 2025; the second highest annual total ever reported to the charity. CST recorded an average of 308 antisemitic incidents per month, double the monthly average of 154 incidents reported in the year before Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023. The terrorist attack which resulted in the deaths of Melvin Cravitz z’’l and Adrian Daulby z’’l, with three others seriously injured at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester in October 2025 was the first fatal antisemitic terrorist attack on British soil since CST began recording incidents in 1984.
Damage and desecration of Jewish property rose by 38 per cent to a record 217 cases, including attacks on homes, vehicles, synagogues, schools, Jewish businesses and hostage memorials.
After visiting sites of the summer 2024 riots in Southport and Liverpool and meeting women in Liverpool, the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee reported on discrimination, harassment and abuse against Muslim women in January. MPs noted police recorded 4,478 hate crimes against Muslims in the year ending March 2025, accounting for 45 per cent of religiously aggravated crimes.
Photo by Mark Rowe: mosque, Mile End, east London.
