A parish which is part of The Church of England in Lancashire (Blackburn Diocese) has been highlighted as part of the launch of a new national initiative which demonstrates how churches could contribute to solving the national housing crisis.
Meanwhile, our Diocese is also contributing in other ways to the future development of the initiative by providing members for a new oversight committee.
As part of the initiative, churches hoping to build affordable homes for their communities on pockets of land they own – or as part of schemes such as rebuilding parish halls – are being invited to apply for grants to pay for expert advice from a £3.2 million fund launched by the Church of England.
Richard Sudworth, CofE Director of Faith and Public Life, said: “This housing initiative is a simple response to a biblical mandate to God’s people towards justice: where a true fast involves bringing the homeless poor into our house (Isaiah 58:7), and where serving Christ demands that we welcome the stranger (Matthew 25:35).”
Funding of up to £25,000 towards the cost of architect, consultant and other professional fees needed to assess the feasibility of housing proposals on church land, will be supported through the scheme with some grants contributing to the cost of navigating the planning process.
In launching the new scheme the Church of England has highlighted a 60-year-old parish hall site at St Martin’s Church in Fulwood, Preston, which has been developed into 14 affordable homes and a new energy-efficient parish centre, in partnership with Regenda Homes, all providing just one example of how churches could contribute to helping solve the housing crisis.
Project manager at that parish, Canon Andrea Titterington, said: “The St. Martin’s chapel/parish centre project fulfils twin objectives of the national church – to use its land to provide good quality, affordable housing and to offer community space - in this case our chapel/parish centre - to be used for fellowship, service and worship.
The new national initiative aims to help parishes and dioceses work towards achieving the goals set out in the landmark Coming Home report. The landmark study, published in 2021 by a team of housing experts and church leaders, called on the Church of England to lead by example in working to solve the housing crisis.
Andrea adds: "Most parishes don't have the expertise to take projects forward and the last thing you want to be doing is spending money on consultants at the early stages because of this lack of expertise. So it's really good that this initiative is supporting parishes in this way."
The funding comes from an overall grant of £4.25 million over five years to help dioceses and parishes in building homes on their land as a response to the housing crisis.
A newly-formed Church of England Housing Project team, led by Beki Winter, formerly of the Housing Justice charity, is now actively seeking parishes interested in, or already working on, developing homes that address the needs of their communities.
That board will include representatives from around the country - including Andrea from St Martin's in Preston and Jen Read, the Senior Church Buildings Officer for Blackburn Diocese.
Beki said: "Many parishes have issues with their buildings or property, but don’t always realise that these problems could be opportunities to provide some housing. There are many creative ways to use church land or property to provide housing for people in need, whilst improving community facilities or bolstering parish finances.”
The grants programme runs alongside expert guidance for Parochial Church Councils (PCCs) that are interested in exploring how they could manage their property differently and provide homes for those in need.
Ronnie Semley, April 2025