What can one of the UK’s biggest landowners do to put its resources where its mouth is? Elizabeth Hopkirk reports
Some of the biggest barriers to the Church of England using more of its land for genuinely affordable housing could be overcome before the end of this year, the chair of the C of E’s housing commission predicts. Thousands of high-quality homes could be developed as a result, says Charlie Arbuthnot, a specialist in social housing financing who led the archbishops’ Commission on Housing, Church and Community whose report, Coming Home, was launched last month.
Individual churches and members of their congregations are engaged in small-scale housing schemes across the country, often for vulnerable communities. But, collectively, the Church of England owns almost 200,000 acres of land in England, more than the Duke of Westminster. What is stopping it putting bricks and mortar where its mouth is?
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Source: Tim Crocker
An example of imaginative community housing: New Ground in north London, designed by PTE Architects for OWCH N15 (Older Women’s Co-Housing group)
The government must create a 20-year, cross-party strategy to transform housing and solve multiple issues of injustice from affordability to dangerous cladding, the Church of England argues in a new report.
The strategy should include a specific target for the number of homes which are truly affordable, 10 and 20 years out, and who should bear the financial burden for achieving this.
Government must also seek to improve the quality and environmental sustainability of existing housing stock, it said. The report includes recommendations about public subsidy and how the planning system might be used to progressively reduce land prices. It also tackles the cladding scandal, benefit cuts, no-fault evictions and the use of public land.
The Church of England publishes a report on the housing crisis this weekend. Refugee-turned-bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani tells Elizabeth Hopkirk she is serious about turning recommendations into actions