Hundreds of England’s village churches could be revived and up to 10,000 affordable homes built for local families if churches sold off land and buildings to housing associations, new research has proposed.
That finding has been highlighted by the National Housing Federation which has estimated that if the 9,600 rural Anglican churches sold or leased land or church buildings, this would provide sites for a tenth of the 100,000 affordable rural homes the nation needs. The federation’s research found that every rural place of worship could deliver an average of one new affordable home. The organisation also pointed out that other denominations such as the Methodists, Baptists and other free-church denominations also have rural churches that could be used for affordable housing.
The federation has argued that the selling of land, for new homes, could help many churches safeguard their future at a time when many have been hit by dwindling congregations. The NHF pointed out that churches wanting to deliver affordable housing could sell or lease glebe land to a social housing provider, exchange the existing church building and grounds for a modern new one, or adapt the existing building so that it contains both social housing and a place of worship.
Overall, the Church of England is understood to own around 129,000 acres of glebe land, much of which the federation believes could be used for housing. NHF chief executive David Orr said: “The village church is often at the heart of our rural communities but many are now at risk of closure because of falling numbers.
“By making land available for housing, rural churches would increase their chances of survival and also help meet local housing need. “If rural parishes could deliver an average of one affordable home per church they would go a long way to helping us end the rural housing crisis.”
