According to the legislation.gov.uk text of the Ecclesiastical Property (Exceptions from Requirement for Consent to Dealings) Order 2026, the Church of England has approved a narrow but material change to its property control regime. The Order was made on 28 July 2026, laid before Parliament on 30 July 2026 and comes into force on 1 October 2026. Its single operative effect is to amend the 2015 Order by raising a monetary ceiling from £250,000 to £400,000. That ceiling sits within the rules that determine when a parochial church council or certain ecclesiastical trusts can proceed with a property transaction without first obtaining consent from the diocesan board of finance.
The explanatory note on legislation.gov.uk states that the 2015 Order already disapplies the consent requirement for certain transactions where the consideration is less than the annual unrestricted income shown in the body's most recent accounts. Until now, that exception stopped at £250,000, meaning consent was always required at or above that figure. From 1 October 2026, that upper limit becomes £400,000. The change applies in both of the places amended by article 2: the consent regime under section 6 of the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1956 and the parallel regime under the Incumbents and Churchwardens (Trusts) Measure 1964.
The practical effect is precise. A PCC or qualifying trust will not gain a general exemption for all transactions below £400,000; the income test remains in place. The consideration must still be below the annual unrestricted income shown in the most recent accounts, and the transaction must also fall below the new £400,000 ceiling. That means some cases that previously needed diocesan consent will fall outside the consent process after 1 October 2026. A transaction at £350,000, for example, could proceed without consent if the body's annual unrestricted income is higher than that figure. A transaction at £400,000 or above will still require consent, and a transaction below £400,000 may also require consent if the income condition is not met.
For parish governance, the immediate effect is administrative rather than doctrinal. Fewer mid-value property matters will have to be referred to the diocesan board of finance, which may shorten timetables for some property dealings that fall within the 2015 framework. For larger and financially stronger PCCs, the revised ceiling creates more room to act without diocesan consent where the latest accounts support it. For smaller bodies, the change may be less significant in practice, because the unrestricted income test will often remain the binding limit even after the monetary cap rises.
The Order does not rewrite the wider consent structure. It does not alter the role of the diocesan board of finance in cases that remain above the threshold, and it does not change the accounting reference point used in the exception, namely annual unrestricted income as shown in the most recent accounts. It is also a useful example of how Church of England governance changes are made. The draft Order was approved by the General Synod on 10 July 2026, then made by the Archbishops’ Council under powers in the 1956 and 1964 Measures, together with later institutional provisions cited on the face of the instrument.
For PCC secretaries, treasurers and trustees, the operational question before 1 October 2026 is straightforward: which planned transactions sit between £250,000 and £399,999, and how do those figures compare with the latest unrestricted income in the accounts. Those are the cases most likely to move into the no-consent category when the new Order takes effect. In policy terms, this is a threshold adjustment rather than a structural reform. Even so, it matters because it resets the point at which diocesan oversight becomes mandatory and, in doing so, changes the approval route for a defined set of Church of England property transactions in England.