Second Homes Were Pricing Out Locals. A Church Gave Its Land, and 41 Affordable Homes Followed

• Keswick in England’s Lake District saw more than half of home sales go to second homes or holiday lets
• St John’s Church gave land for the town’s first 11 affordable homes, completed by Christmas 2013
• A community housing trust went on to build more than 40 homes, including four on a Methodist site
• About half are shared ownership and half are rented at rates based on local earnings

In the Lake District town of Keswick, local workers were being priced out by holiday homes. In February 2022 the Church of England told the story of how one church’s unused land helped change that. Estate agents had reported that more than half of property sales were second homes or holiday lets, and average house prices required an income of about £75,000 a year.

Keswick Churches Together began consultations, and the Keswick Community Housing Trust was formed. St John’s Church provided land for the first scheme, and 11 homes were completed by Christmas 2013. The trust went on to build about 30 more homes on other plots, including four on the site of the town’s Methodist church, bringing the total to more than 40 and housing about 200 people.

The tenure mix was designed for local people. About half the homes were sold on shared ownership, and half were rented at rates calculated from local earnings rather than market rents.

Bill Bewley, chair of the Keswick Community Housing Trust, credited the church with starting it all: “there is no doubt in my mind that if it had not been for the impetus from Keswick St John’s we would not have gone on to build” the later homes, he said.

Jamaica’s resort towns face a similar question: can the people who work in tourism afford to live near their jobs as more homes are bought or let to visitors? Keswick shows what a church can do with one plot: start a community housing trust, set prices by local wages and keep homes for local families. For returning residents and diaspora investors, it is also a reminder that a community can protect affordability for local people while still welcoming visitors.

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