diff --git a/changelog.d/8544.feature b/changelog.d/8544.feature
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..542993110bc80386980b59af8a4a5e4ed4b1ebd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/8544.feature
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Allow running background tasks in a separate worker process.
diff --git a/synapse/storage/databases/main/events_worker.py b/synapse/storage/databases/main/events_worker.py
index ff150f0be7ccda06eb8ada1d7dea824ecad68a59..0ad9a19b3d6f1ebd6e4cb552c62913263da362e2 100644
--- a/synapse/storage/databases/main/events_worker.py
+++ b/synapse/storage/databases/main/events_worker.py
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ class EventsWorkerStore(SQLBaseStore):
                     db_conn, "events", "stream_ordering", step=-1
                 )
 
-        if not hs.config.worker.worker_app:
+        if hs.config.run_background_tasks:
             # We periodically clean out old transaction ID mappings
             self._clock.looping_call(
                 run_as_background_process,