A £1 Million Repair Bill and No Buyer: How 14 Affordable Homes Saved a Cardiff Church

• St Paul’s Church in Grangetown, Cardiff, dates from 1890 and is Grade II-listed
• Repairs and a new roof were estimated at £1 million over a decade
• Wales and West Housing Association will create 14 affordable homes
• The congregation of 50 to 60 will keep a place to worship

A Victorian church in Cardiff that nobody wanted to buy has found a way to survive. Premier reported in August 2017 that St Paul’s Church in Grangetown, a Grade II-listed building dating from 1890, would be saved through a partnership with Wales and West Housing Association.

The church had faced closure and was put up for sale in 2008, but no buyer came forward. A survey found that around £1 million would be needed over a decade for repairs and a new roof, far beyond the means of a congregation of 50 to 60 people.

Under the plan, the housing association will fund the renovation in return for the right to build homes. Twelve apartments will be created inside the church building and two semi-detached homes built on the plot, making 14 affordable homes, while space for worship continues.

“The reality was this building was not affordable for that congregation in the long-term,” said Alex Glanville, head of property services at the Church in Wales. “We’ve got a church presence continuing and a new community forming.” The priest-in-charge, Rev David Morris, said the work would save the church from “rack and ruin.”

The Grangetown deal is a neat answer to a common problem: a building too big and too costly for its congregation, but too important to its community to lose. By trading development rights for restoration, the church avoided both a sale and a slow decline.

Many historic churches in Jamaica face similar bills, with roofs, stonework and old timber that small congregations cannot afford to repair. The Cardiff model suggests one option for church boards at home and for diaspora members raising money for them: partner with a housing provider, let part of the building or site become homes, and use that value to keep worship alive in a restored church.

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