Nearly 2,000 affordable homes could be built on church sites - five years on from landmark report on the housing crisis

The Archbishops’ Council Housing Project was set up in 2024 with an aim of helping churches in the first stages of exploring the potential of sites to create housing – such as pockets of surplus land or land freed up through redevelopment of a church hall or other building.

The Project team, with an architect, a community housing specialist, a town planner and a Church buildings officer, has provided advice and support to around 85 parishes so far.

Most of its budget is distributed through a grants programme, with more than £1.2 million awarded to 54 projects in the first year of operation, paying for expert advice and early-stage feasibility and viability work, up to the ‘pre-app’ stage – the point at which a project will seek advice from a planning authority ahead of submitting a formal application.

The Church Development Agency functions as the Church’s specialist property development and delivery arm, supplying the technical expertise that most dioceses and parishes lack. Currently there are 42 church sites in 10 dioceses, receiving support from the Agency, 15 of which were given initial grants by the Housing Project for early stage work.

If given the green light, the projects currently with the Agency could create more than 1,000 new affordable homes. This figure almost doubles to 1,952 when taking into account proposals being given support by other Church housing organisations and dioceses, including the Housing Project and the Church Housing Association.

The work currently under way is helping to implement the recommendations of Coming Home, the 2021 report of the Archbishops' Commission on Housing, Church and Community on tackling the housing crisis.

Among its recommendations, the report called on the Church of England to lead by example, including delivering more truly affordable homes on its own land. The Church Development Agency and the Church Housing Association were set up following the publication of the Coming Home report, alongside the Archbishops' Council Housing Project.

The Church Housing Association, approved last year as registered provider of social housing, is currently raising money needed to buy 70 ‘section 106’ homes – properties built by a developer as part of an agreement with a local authority to provide affordable housing or community benefit.

A planning application has also been submitted for Winson Green, Birmingham, in partnership with the Church Development Agency and the Diocese of Birmingham for 17 affordable homes on a former vicarage site.

The site is in an area of deprivation close to James Turner St, which featured in the Channel 4 documentary Benefits Street in 2014, and Birmingham Prison.

The Diocese of Leeds sold a surplus vicarage and church hall in the city to a local housing association, which has built 28 affordable homes with spacious gardens, heat pumps, EV chargers and solar panels. 

All the Church of England organisations working to deliver affordable housing on Church land and property are connected through the Forum for Church Housing, providing a network for sharing information, opportunities and developments across the Church. The Forum meets quarterly and is chaired by the Church of England’s lead bishop for housing, Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani. It also brings in the Church Commissioners and dioceses actively engaged in housing delivery.

An online event on 10th September at 6pm will mark five years since the Archbishops Commission published the Coming Home report, and showcase some of the ongoing church housing projects from around the country. Register to attend at https://churchhousing.net/whats-happening/next-event

Bishop Guli said: “Housing projects can have a catalytic effect on participating churches; not only do they provide much-needed homes, they also provide missional opportunities and strengthen the church’s reputation in the community. 

They can unlock resources for ministry through a capital sum or income stream. We are starting to realise the huge potential for housing projects to sustain and even grow our local churches."