“Almost Life-Threatening”: The Church of England’s New Housing Association Starts Building on Church Land

• The Church Housing Association was registered with the regulator in March 2025
• Its first homes are planned on glebe land in central Birmingham
• Construction was expected to begin in early 2026
• Its project director links poor housing to a £2bn yearly cost to the NHS

The Church of England’s new housing association is preparing to build its first homes on church-owned land in Birmingham, Premier Christian News reported in November 2025.

The Church Housing Association was formally registered with the social housing regulator in March 2025. Its first development is planned on glebe land, property historically held to support parish clergy, in central Birmingham, with construction expected to start in early 2026. The association is working with the Newbigin Community Trust, a faith-based partner, on the project, and is following the “5S” approach from the Church’s 2021 Coming Home report, which calls for homes that are sustainable, safe, stable, social and satisfying.

Project director Aileen Evans set the work against the scale of the national crisis. More than 150,000 children are in temporary accommodation, she noted, with about £2 billion a year spent on temporary housing and some £25 billion in housing benefit going to private landlords. “Poor housing damages people’s health and it costs the NHS another £2bn a year. It’s an unsatisfactory, damaging and almost life-threatening situation,” she said.

The association marks a shift from the Church simply selling land to building and managing homes itself, keeping the asset in church hands while putting it to social use.

Birmingham has a large and long-established Caribbean community. A church-owned landlord building affordable homes there is a model Jamaican denominations could learn from: rather than leaving glebe land idle or selling it to meet short-term needs, a church can hold the title and use it to house people for generations. For returnees and diaspora families watching rents climb on both sides of the Atlantic, it is a reminder that church land can be part of the answer.