{"id":29408,"date":"2021-03-16T16:04:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T16:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=29408"},"modified":"2021-03-15T17:51:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T17:51:41","slug":"coe-should-use-own-land-to-help-deliver-affordable-homes-coming-home-report-recommends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=29408","title":{"rendered":"CoE should use own land to help deliver affordable homes \u2013 \u2018Coming Home\u2019 report recommends"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>The Church of England (CoE) should examine how its 6,000 acres of \u2018strategic land\u2019 could be used to deliver more affordable housing, a new report of the Commission of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on Housing Church and Community \u2018Coming Home\u2019 has recommended.<\/h3>\n
image: for illustration purposes only – Open Government Licence v3.0<\/em><\/h6>\n

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\u2026 legal framework for selling church assets should be amended\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

\u2026 criticised the housing policy track record of successive governments\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

News Chain<\/em> writes:<\/p>\n

The Commission of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on\u00a0Housing<\/a>\u00a0Church and Community has spent nearly two years researching the \u201chousing crisis\u201d in England.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Its new \u201cComing Home\u201d report, released on Sunday, warned that around eight million people of all ages live in \u201covercrowded, unaffordable, or unsuitable homes\u201d, while those in poverty \u201cbear the brunt of this injustice\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It added: \u201cThe scale and consequences of the housing crisis have been further exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is a national scandal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 10-member strong commission called for a \u201cbold, coherent, long-term housing strategy\u201d from the Government, while arguing that the Church should use its land assets to \u201cpromote more truly affordable homes\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to their report, the Church Commissioners manage \u00a38.7 billion of assets, with roughly 15% in various land holdings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The report calls on the Church to be sacrificial, not to take its maximum possible benefit, that is the challenge that I welcome and support. It calls on government and landowners in the same way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some 3% of the portfolio, 6,000 acres, is held as \u201cstrategic land\u201d suitable for housing, with the report recommending a review is carried on whether such assets could be used for affordable homes and the Church \u201cnot simply be driven towards land sales at the highest price\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The legal framework for selling church assets should be amended so church land and buildings can be used for \u201csocial and environmental, as well as economic, benefit\u201d, the report also recommended.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Reverend Justin Welby, said there needed to be a \u201cnational common vision\u201d for housing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He told Sky\u2019s Sophy Ridge on Sunday that such a vision could be compared to the establishment of the NHS in the 1940s and its aim to deliver health care free at the point of need.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere is no equivalent in housing and there is no definition of affordable housing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Welby added: \u201cThe report calls on the Church to be sacrificial, not to take its maximum possible benefit, that is the challenge that I welcome and support.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt calls on government and landowners in the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As part of its research, the commission interviewed representatives from more than 40 church-linked housing projects across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Initiatives cited in the report include almshouses in Thatcham, Berkshire, affordable micro-homes in Cambridge and a church hall converted to accommodate homeless young people in Blackburn, Lancashire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To add impetus to such initiatives, Mr Welby has submitted a General Synod motion which recognises that \u201chousing and communities are part of the mission and ministry of the Church of England\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A newly appointed \u201cBishop for Housing\u201d, Guli Francis-Dehqani \u2013 currently Bishop of Loughborough, and an executive team will \u201cembed this vision within the Church\u201d and support dioceses in \u201cusing their land well,\u201d the commission report said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Overall, the report argued that homes should be sustainable, safe, stable, sociable and satisfying.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It criticised the housing policy track record of successive governments, which it said were characterised \u201cby short-term interventions and announcements, and an extraordinary focus on the annual rate of new build\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The report argued that housing needs were \u201ctoo important to be dictated by short term, narrow, party political objectives\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Over the last 20 years, three million homes were built in England, the commission highlighted, but said this been accompanied by the addition of 2.6 million households renting privately.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It called on the Government to provide greater protection for private sector tenants through longer-term security of tenure and placing a duty of care on all landlords.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The commission also urged ministers to review the social security system because it \u201cfails\u201d to provide adequate housing support for low-income household and recommended the restoration of Local Housing Allowances to median rents in each local area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Government should maximise public land use for affordable housing, and commit to improve and reduce the need for temporary accommodation, the report said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Increased public capital subsidy would help \u201cbridge the gap\u201d between open housing market prices and affordable prices, it argued.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Commissioners also said the \u201ccladding crisis\u201d must be addressed with \u201creal urgency\u201d, adding that the Government should commit to remove unsafe cladding on all residential blocks by June 2022 and protect for leaseholders from remediation costs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Welby welcomed the report\u2019s \u201cchallenge to the Church\u201d, which he said was \u201cuniquely placed\u201d to \u201cwork to build not just more houses but truly affordable houses and stronger communities\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Charlie Arbuthnot, chair of the commission, said: \u201cWe have seen, first hand, the heart-wrenching conditions in which many are housed and this has to change. We truly hope that this report will be part of that process.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Polly Neate, chief executive of homelessness charity Shelter, said: \u201cLooking at how church land can be best used to fight homelessness is extremely welcome.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHomelessness isn\u2019t inevitable. It\u2019s the result of decades of political failure to build social homes. This is the reason over a quarter of a million people in England are homeless and trapped in temporary accommodation during the pandemic \u2013 half of them children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe Church is right that homes have to be affordable to local people and tied to local incomes. This is what social housing does, which is why we want to see the Church, the government and other landowners play their part in building a new generation of social homes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A Government spokesman said: \u201cWe welcome and encourage the practical steps that the Church is taking to make more of their land available for affordable housing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve delivered over 500,000 new affordable homes since 2010, and our new \u00a311.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will provide up to 180,000 new homes across the country \u2013 half of which will be for affordable and social rent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re supporting renters by extending notice periods and banning bailiff enforcement of evictions for all but the most serious cases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re spending billions of pounds to remove cladding so people\u2019s homes are safe and the most dangerous cladding is already gone or going from almost all high-rise buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n

See more background –\u00a0 The Archbishop of Canterbury<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Church of England (CoE) should examine how its 6,000 acres of \u2018strategic land\u2019 could be used to deliver more affordable housing, a new report of the Commission of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on Housing Church and Community … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29409,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29408\/revisions\/29409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}