A SENIOR clergyman from York has condemned the extravagant expenses that bishops receive.

The Ven George Austin, Archdeacon Emeritus of York, said the matter needed urgent attention from the Church of England while the country was experiencing a “period of financial stringency”.

In a letter to The Times, he said between 2003 and 2007 the cost of maintaining bishops' houses and gardens rose from £3.5 million to £7.9 million, with individual bishops claiming between £80,000 to £180,000 per year, depending on the accommodation they occupy. In some cases these were medieval castles and palaces.

He said: “A thorough and independent review is urgently required, not only about the housing costs of bishops but also of the everyday expenses they claim.

“The most expensive bishop in 2008 claimed no less than £3,600 a week, itself an increase of 27 per cent on the previous year. No credit crunch here and something of an emerging scandal for the Church of England.”

A spokesman for the Church of England said that it would be wrong to call the bishops’ expenditure “expenses”. He said the working costs of bishops included the salaries paid to staff, such as chaplains and secretaries, as well as things like legal fees.

“They also include the costs of their ministry of hospitality. As a church, one of our roles is to be hospitable to people and that costs money. These things are very different to expenses and bishops probably have very low levels of expenses.”

He said there were no longer many diocesan bishops that had full-time gardeners and the Church has already started to sell off some of its more expensive properties.

“We undertake a continuous review of all bishops’ houses to ensure that they are suitable, and we don’t keep large expensive houses that aren’t suitable,” he said.