Coming Home Tackling the housing crisis together Full Report February 2021 The Commission of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on Housing, Church and Community Contents Foreword by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York ................................................................................. 3 The Commissioners ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Key messages ........................................................................................................................................................ 5 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Case Study: Keswick Churches Together .................................................................................................... 8 Part 1: The housing crisis and our vision for the future .............................................................................. 9 Chapter 1: A positive vision of housing and community ............................................................10 Case Study: St Barnabas and Christ the Saviour, Ealing ....................................................................19 Chapter 2: Where we are now ..................................................................................................................20 Case Study: Diocese of Worcester ..............................................................................................................34 Part 2: What the Church will do ..............................................................................................................................35 Chapter 3: The Church’s responsibility to act ..................................................................................36 Case Study: St Silas, Blackburn ....................................................................................................................39 Chapter 4: Resources and recommendations at a national level .........................................40 Case Study: Thatcham, Berkshire ...............................................................................................................50 Chapter 5: Resources and recommendations for dioceses ......................................................51 Case Study: Hope4All, South East London ..............................................................................................59 Chapter 6: Resources and recommendations for local churches ..........................................60 Case Study: St Bride’s, Trafford ....................................................................................................................69 Chapter 7: Resources and recommendations for individuals .................................................70 Case Study: Shieldfield Art Works, Newcastle .......................................................................................73 Part 3: What the nation can do ................................................................................................................................74 Chapter 8: What Government can do ...................................................................................................75 Modern Methods of Construction ..............................................................................................................88 Chapter 9: What others can do ................................................................................................................89 Case Study: Dent, Yorkshire Dales ..............................................................................................................96 Part 4: Making a difference .......................................................................................................................................97 Chapter 10: Actions and recommendations .....................................................................................98 Epilogue by the Chair, Charlie Arbuthnot ...........................................................................................................99 Appendices ....................................................................................................................................................................... 101 Appendix 1: Members of the Commission ........................................................................................... 102 Appendix 2: A foundation for good development ............................................................................. 107 Appendix 3: Bates Wells Braithwaite on Charity Commission rules ...........................................114 Appendix 4: Draft motion to General Synod ........................................................................................116 Appendix 5: The climate change challenge for housing ...................................................................117 Appendix 6: Housing, social justice and our environmental responsibilities ........................ 122 Appendix 7: The Stewardship Initiative: Proposed Stewardship Kitemark ............................. 123 References ........................................................................................................................................................................ 124 2 Coming Home Tackling the housing crisis together Full Report Foreword by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York At the heart of this report is the idea that simply building more houses – whilst important – is not sufficient to address the prolonged housing issues this country continues to face. We need more truly affordable homes and stronger communities that people can be proud of and where they can feel safe and welcome, put down roots and flourish. The Covid-19 pandemic has made us realise how vital our homes are to our health and wellbeing, and it has also highlighted the connection between poor housing, race, poverty and health. It has shown unequivocally that housing is an issue of social justice and equality. This report by the independent Commission on Housing, Church and Community lays out a positive vision for housing, one that has been lacking in our national debate on this subject. The vision is centred on five core values, which are rooted in the Christian story but resonate with us all: good housing should be sustainable, safe, stable, sociable and satisfying. We both firmly believe the Church of England has a major role to play in realising this vision. This means putting our land and other resources to good use, not letting the pressure for financial profit prevent us from also delivering social and environmental benefits, including new housing developments that align with our five core values. It means encouraging dioceses and parishes to become more deeply involved in meeting local housing need and building community, learning from the great examples of church-led action that are featured throughout this report. Good housing should be sustainable, safe, stable, sociable and satisfying. We also stand with the Commission in urging the Government to develop a long-term, cross-party housing strategy to build more truly affordable homes and healthy communities, and to ensure that no one has to live in unacceptable housing conditions. But, if the housing crisis is to be solved, it will need all of us – central and local government, landowners, developers, landlords, homeowners, and housing associations, as well as the Church – to play our part. It is the poorest and most marginalised amongst us who are suffering the burden of our housing crisis, and that will only change if we take collective responsibility and action. As we have the honour to launch this report, our prayer is that it will be a catalyst towards the creation of homes and communities that enable all of us to live well and flourish together in ways that reflect God’s good will for us in Jesus Christ – places where we can truly “live in harmony with one another.” (Rom 12:16) 3 Coming Home Tackling the housing crisis together Full Report The Commissioners Charlie Arbuthnot The Rt Revd Dr Graham Tomlin (Chair) (Vice-chair) Former funding adviser to Bishop of Kensington and housing associations President, St Mellitus College Dr Stephen Backhouse Cym D’Souza Director of Tent Theology Chief Executive of Arawak Walton Housing Association and Chair of BMENational Canon Chris Beales David Orr CBE Anglican minister and social Former Chief Executive of the entrepreneur National Housing Federation The Revd Lynne Cullens Marvin Rees Rector of Stockport and Mayor of Bristol Brinnington and Chair of the National Estate Churches Network Sir Robert Devereux KCB Christine Whitehead Former Permanent Secretary Professor Emeritus in Housing at the Department of Work Economics, London School of and Pensions Economics Acknowledgements We are also grateful to the many people and organisations, with whom we have had the privilege Funding for the Commission was generously of working and partnering over the past 18 months provided by The Andrews Charitable Trust, on some of the specific initiatives or pieces of work Allchurches Trust, Tufton Charitable Trust and that are referred to in this report, including: Bates Incommunities Group. Wells & Braithwaite