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Church Land and Buildings: Housing Crisis Solved

Are churches the solution to the housing crisis?

England's always ahead. Now they're planning to use church land and buildings for affordable homes. This could be one of the solutions to the housing crisis.

James Derounian, principal lecturer in community development and local governance at the University of Gloucestershire, writes in The Guardian: "The long and the short of it is that our cities and villages desperately need an injection of affordable homes, not least as a contribution towards "sustainable development", which government says lies at the heart of its draft National Planning Policy Framework.

church - Church Land and Buildings: Housing Crisis Solved

One of the less obvious possibilities relates to the use of Church land and buildings for affordable housing. In fact the Goodman report did present evidence from researchers at the University of Gloucestershire on the use of Church of England land.

What then emerged was a genuine and spontaneous partnership of the committed, which reads a bit like a joke: an architect, a lecturer, an atheist, a lay preacher and assorted CofE representatives. What these nine individuals did was to assemble and set up an online portal Faith in Affordable Housing, under the aegis of the national charity Housing Justice. This web resource is aimed at communities and congregations across England, so they may turn good intentions into bricks and mortart.

The site features several case studies including developments in Plymouth, London, Northumberland, Worcestershire, Oxford, Dorset, and Cumbria. They provide a taste of what churches are already doing to generate affordable housing".

Would you consider it in Spain?

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Houses in Spain

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