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Church of England mulls setting up own housing association
The Church of England is considering setting up its own housing association as part of an effort to do more to tackle the housing crisis in the country.
Senior figures within the Church have said that setting up a housing association could be a logical next step for the Church of England, which has also recently appointed its first ever bishop for housing earlier this year.
The idea for a Church of England-backed provided were revealed during a roundtable discussion between key Church of England and housing sector figures for a feature that will be published in Inside Housing’s next issue.
Ben Preece Smith, diocesan secretary of Gloucester, said a housing association could be set up to help the Church fulfil the recommendations set out in a recent report commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Published in February, the Coming Home: Tackling the Housing Crisis Together report said the Church must make more of its own land to facilitate the development of “genuinely affordable housing”.
The report was published two years after the Archbishop of Canterbury first set up a housing commission to look into how the Church of England could play a larger role in helping to tackle the housing crisis.
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Mr Preece Smith said: “In order to deliver all of our objectives within the report, one of the tools we need is a Church-owned housing association that can demonstrate the practice we wish to see so that we can then go and model partnerships with others.”
The Diocese of Gloucester set up its own affordable housing development company 10 years ago.
Mr Preece Smith said one of the things he has learned about development in this time is that “there is no better experience than doing it yourself”.
“I think it is very difficult to talk and relate to partners in this housing market without being an active participant in it,” he added.
In January, the Church of England appointed Bishop of Loughborough Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani to be its first ever bishop for housing.
As part of this role, Bishop Guli will lead the efforts to implement the recommendations of the Coming Home report.
Nick Pollock, head of planning for the Duchy of Cornwall, who is currently seconded to the executive team supporting and advising Bishop Guli, told the roundtable that discussions about a new Church of England housing association are “exploratory” and would not replace the need for partnerships with others.
“I think it is incumbent on us to look at different options in this first year, just to see what the art of the possible is and what tools are necessary in each location,” he said.
