England's cathedrals are the country's largest, most historic and most complex buildings yet they are generally in good repair and continuing to add to their glories by commissioning new works from fonts to fire doors and from choir schools to cafés, according to a new survey from English Heritage.

The English Heritage Cathedrals Fabric Condition Survey 2009 published today shows that cathedrals have spent more than £250 million on repairs since 1991 and most critical work has now been been done.

Over the next 10 years cathedrals need to spend some £100 million on mainly routine repairs, but relatively few of these are urgent, and more than £75 million of new developments are planned.

Only six cathedrals still need to carry out major repair programmes in the next 10 years: Canterbury - £16m, York - £8m, Lincoln - £13m or more, Salisbury - £15m, Chichester - £10m, Winchester - £4m. This leaves the other 55 cathedrals needing to spend an average of less than £1m each over the next 10 years.

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