Despite welcoming more than 1.5m visitors a year, its officials have been told by lottery managers that it needs to open up to “new audiences”, including people from other faiths, ethnic minorities, the disabled and schoolchildren.

The cathedral, whose survival in the blitz symbolised Britain’s spirit of defiance, needs another £6m to complete a £40m restoration in time for the 300th anniversary of the laying of the final stone of Sir Christopher Wren’s building in October 2008. It has raised the rest of the money itself, much of it in donations from some of the nation’s richest people.

But the Heritage Lottery Fund, which has given £300m to more than 2,000 places of worship across Britain, has so far refused to help. Its awards have, however, included funding to help a disused church in Bristol become a school for circus skills.

Tomorrow, little more than a mile across London from St Paul’s, work starts on a £34m project to provide a glass entrance pavilion and new underground facilities, including a day centre for the Chinese community, at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square.

St Martin’s, which receives 700,000 visitors a year, has been given £14.69m by the lottery fund, even though it has raised only £10m itself.

Sir Roger Gibbs, who stood down last weekend after six years as chairman of the St Paul’s Cathedral Foundation, its fundraising arm, said: “To us it is obviously odd that a very large sum was given to St Martin’s and not to St Paul’s.

“We have been asking for help for five years. I am surprised and disappointed that the lottery fund has not helped us but hope in the long term that it will.”

“The number of different faiths represented in the visitors to St Paul’s is extraordinary. We have about 1.5m visitors a year and we don’t know how many are Japanese and how many are Muslims but you have only got to go in there on a normal day to see how many nationalities are there.

“People seem to be nervous of supporting a cathedral that is Church of England, despite the fact that St Paul’s has said repeatedly that those of every religious faith and those of none are equally welcome to the cathedral.”

Fundraisers at St Paul’s believe it has suffered because of its historic links with the City and support from the rich. Robin Fleming, a member of the banking family, gave £11m towards cleaning the inside and providing new lighting and sound systems. The late Sir Paul Getty, the American billionaire who became a British citizen, paid £5m to restore the main entrance above the steps at the Great West Door. Disabled access is still via a side entrance and a lift.

“I think the government feels the City can look after St Paul’s but the world has changed and it is not like that any longer,” said Gibbs. “The old banking families have all been very supportive. But some of the bigger banks have decided they really can’t do anything because they feel they should use their money in the way their shareholders wish and it is not up to them to support St Paul’s.”

A spokeswoman for St Martin’s said: “The lottery fund has been very supportive. What we do is unique. I don’t think the grant has anything to do with political correctness.

“It is just the history of the church. It is where Amnesty was founded and where Shelter started. It has always had that outreach. It is a church for all faiths. We held the first multifaith service after 9/11 and we held a similar service after last July’s bombings in London.”

A lottery fund insider said: “We see the enhancement of public access to St Paul’s as vital. Public access can mean disabled access and can mean ethnic minorities. They do need to look at wheelchair access but it is more to do with opening up to new audiences and being more accessible generally. With lottery money we need to try and reach as many people as possible.

“It’s the people’s money, it is all about including as many people as possible.

“The entire proposal for St Martin’s was good. It wasn’t necessarily about being multi-faith but I don’t suppose it hurts because it’s an inclusive thing.”

St Martin’s held the first multi-faith service after 9/11. St Paul’s has held multi-faith services recently for the victims of the July bombings in London and the Asian tsunami.

Carole Souter, director of the lottery fund, said: “Nobody can have any doubt about the heritage of St Paul’s, but an application to us has to hit the button towards the criteria that we require all applicants to fill. We ask applicants to look at the people who are not coming in. In some cases we will say ethnic minorities are not being encouraged in and what can we do about it?”

The Heritage Lottery Fund is one of five funds that distribute 28p of every £1 spent on the lottery. Controversial grants include £420,000 to help Peruvian farmers breed edible guinea pigs and £20,000 on teaching prisoners to play the xylophone.

A total of £3.3 billion has been given away by the Heritage Lottery Fund since 1994 but it rejected a bid from St Paul’s in 2002. It has funded projects on Nubian heritage and African dishes and a study on dreadlocks.

St Paul’s, which raised its admission charge to £9 last week, said it planned to submit another bid for lottery cash.

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