A Parish Plot Became 40 Homes in the Lake District: The Church of England’s Housing Bishop Takes Stock

• Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani reviewed progress a year after the Coming Home report
• Keswick Community Housing Trust built over 40 affordable homes on a parish plot
• In Kent, 13 homes were approved with a community land trust on church land
• Gloucester is turning a redundant church site into homeless accommodation

A year after the Church of England’s Coming Home report on housing, its Bishop for Housing, Guli Francis-Dehqani, set out in March 2022 what had been achieved and what was planned. Around eight million people in England live in overcrowded, unaffordable or unsuitable homes, she noted, and the General Synod had affirmed that “responding to housing need is an integral part of the mission and ministry of the Church of England.”

Her examples were local. In the Lake District, Keswick Community Housing Trust built more than 40 affordable homes on a small parcel of land provided by a local parish. In Kent, the Church Commissioners and the Shepherdswell with Coldred Community Land Trust won approval for 13 new homes. In Gloucester, a redundant church site is being turned into accommodation for homeless people, and modular homes are being developed for people leaving prison with the help of the diocese’s Bishop for Prisons.

In the North East, churches across denominations are working together to identify land for homes, with consultants funded by Big Society Capital. Joanne Thorns, who coordinates that effort, said: “we don’t want to just build accommodation and then walk away.” The Diocese of Chelmsford has several initiatives in East London, including almshouses for key workers, and Gloucester Diocese runs a property company, The Good and Faithful Servant.

“Our hope is that others will catch this vision and be willing to share our mission – to provide homes and build communities where people love to live,” the bishop wrote.

The Keswick example is the one most relevant to Jamaica: a small plot of parish land, handed to a local housing trust, producing more than 40 homes for local people. Many Jamaican parishes hold similar corners of land. Diaspora Jamaicans in England who see these schemes at first hand can share what they learn with their home churches.

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