Landmark report says Church of England must re-use its own land for affordable housing
The government must create a 20-year, cross-party strategy to transform housing and solve multiple issues of injustice from affordability to dangerous cladding, the Church of England argues in a new report.
该战略应包括一个具体的目标，即10年和20年后真正负担得起的住房数量，以及谁应该为实现这一目标承担经济负担。
Government must also seek to improve the quality and environmental sustainability of existing housing stock, it said. The report includes recommendations about public subsidy and how the planning system might be used to progressively reduce land prices. It also tackles the cladding scandal, benefit cuts, no-fault evictions and the use of public land.
The report, Coming Home, which was published yesterday after two years of work by acommission set up by archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, sets out a vision for what good and just housing could look like, includes case studies of best practice and makes recommendations for government, industry and the church itself.
报告警告说，住房危机导致大约800万人住在过于拥挤、负担不起和不合标准的住房里，越来越多的家庭无法在自己的社区扎根。
Bishop of Kensington Graham Tomlin, who worked closely with the Grenfell community after the fire that killed 72 people in 2017, was vice-chair of the commission. He said: “The Grenfell Tower fire highlighted the urgency of the housing crisis in our nation and was always in the back of our minds as a commission as we have thought and prayed over the housing issue in the last two years.
“The commission offers a framework of what good housing looks like and suggests that we need a long-term plan for housing that present and future governments can commit to.”
There is hope – the past two years have revealed that there is a quiet revolution happening within many parishes
Rev Lynne Cullens, member of the Commission on Housing, Church and Community
The church, which owns about 80,000ha of land, does not need to wait for politicians before it starts developing genuinely affordable housing on its own land, he said, adding that the definition of affordability must change so it is linked to people’s incomes rather than a discount on the market rate.
他说:“作为在每个社区都有存在的教会，我们可以发挥带头作用，在我们力所能及的地方提供经济适用房，并支持我们教区有住房需求的人。”
The recommendations for the church include making legal changes so it can use its assets for social and environmental good rather than being required to sell them to the highest bidder – and for the Church Commissioners, who control the church’s investments, to set an example by favouring developments that align with five values identified in the report: for housing to be sustainable, safe, stable, sociable and satisfying.
Some of the recommendations are already being implemented, including theappointment of a bishop for housingto sit in the House of Lords. In aninterviewGuli 日本vs塞内加尔比分Francis-Dehqani说，她致力于将这些建议转化为行动。她的顾问委员会和管理团队成员已于本周末公布。他们将由康沃尔公爵领地规划负责人尼克·波洛克(Nick Pollock)领导，将于3月1日开始工作。
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Gavin Smart, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, welcomed the recommendations saying they ”give us a clear and useful roadmap to help us get to where we need to”.
Rev Lynne Cullens, one of the commissioners and chair of the National Estate Churches Network, said: “The statistics regarding the housing crisis are grim: four million households in England live in a home that the government defines as ‘non-decent’, for instance. But there is hope – the past two years have revealed that there is a quiet revolution happening within many parishes.
“Right across the country, churches are responding to local housing need by building, innovating, repurposing and advocating for those who are vulnerably housed.”
In one of theexamples在报告中，Keswick的一个教堂——那里的度假屋市场把当地人赶出了湖区——把墓地旁边的一块土地给了一个志愿者经营的社区土地信托基金，该基金为当地人建造了11所房屋。
库伦斯说，通过共同努力，社会可以“推动住房不公平的车轮”。
该报告受到了全国住房联合会(National Housing Federation)、伦敦市长和格伦费尔联合社区(Grenfell United)等机构的欢迎。
What’s truly exciting about the#ComingHomeReport, led by@JustinWelbyand@gtomlin, is the Commission’s determination for the Church to do its part in ending the housing crisis once and for all by looking at how it can use its land for the development of social housing.https://t.co/LSmXOx4eE9
— Kate Henderson (@KateNHF)February 21, 2021
Read Coming Home - thefull reportand theexecutive summary.
The commission’s 7 recommendations for government and others
1 Our most important recommendation is that government should develop a coherent, long-term housing strategy, focusing particularly on those in the greatest need. This strategy should be cross-party, as it cannot otherwise guarantee to be long-term.
It should include:
:: Mechanisms for improving the quality and sustainability of the housing stock, including decarbonisation targets for existing, as well as new, homes.
:: A 20-year strategy for increasing the supply of truly affordable homes, specifically setting a target for the number of new affordable homes, and how these will be funded.
*我们认为，除了这项建议外，没有其他办法可以替代这项要求立即增加公共资本补贴的建议，但我们也已制定政府如何利用现有的规划制度，逐步降低土地价格和土地所有者的意外收益，以分担提供更实惠的房屋的财政负担。
:: A clear statement of the policy and regulatory framework underpinning the delivery of this strategy.
2 There should be a full review of the social security system to ensure it provides adequate housing support for low-income households. In many parts of the country, housing benefit levels fall well short of actual rents on most private rented properties, with the difference being topped up from income that is meant for basic essentials, like food and heating. An adequate safety net should be in place for all those who need it, none of whom are responsible for the housing crisis. Pending this review, we recommend that LHAs [Local Housing Allowances] be immediately reinstated to the median rent for properties in their local area.
3 All public land should be used to maximise its long-term social, environmental and economic value, not simply be sold for the highest price. Each acre that contributes its potential social value reduces the need for public subsidy to create much-needed affordable homes.
4 There should be a thorough review of tenancy agreements in the private rented sector. This should include:
*取消第21条('无过错')驱逐。我们敦促政府兑现其宣言承诺，确保可预测的租金和长期的使用权安全，并有明确的、有限的例外情况。
:: An explicit duty of care on all landlords in respect of their tenants, with an effective complaints mechanism and a clear means of redress where complaints are not properly dealt with.
5 The government’s long-term housing strategy should include a specific goal to reduce the number of households in temporary housing, which is by definition unstable. Furthermore, there should be a new quality standard for temporary accommodation, and an effective and transparent resolution process when this standard is not being met.
6 The cladding crisis should be resolved fully with real urgency, including a commitment to remove all unsafe cladding on residential blocks by June 2022 and provide complete protection for leaseholders from remediation and other associated costs.
7 Landlords, particularly in the social rented sector, should ensure that the voices of tenants are heard, considered and acted on in designing services for tenants. We commend to all landlords the principles described in the ‘Together with Tenants’ work organised by the National Housing Federation.
The housing crisis cannot be solved unless the burden, which currently falls mainly on the poorest, is spread more evenly. In the medium-term, we believe that future land prices can and should be reduced through the planning system, so that landowners do not benefit from substantial windfall gains at the expense of those who are priced out of the housing market. In the meantime, the gap between the market price of housing and what many households can afford will need to be bridged by public subsidy, through a more generous social security system for tenants on low incomes and higher capital grants for new social housing.
为了使这一愿景成为现实，我们所有人都必须作出牺牲——土地所有者、开发商、房东、房主以及纳税人。为我们的国家提供住房与我们所有人都有利害关系。鉴于这场危机的紧迫性及其对社会中数百万最贫困人口的影响，我们邀请其他人加入我们，利用他们的土地和其他资源造福整个社会，而不仅仅是使他们自己的经济回报最大化。这场住房危机既非偶然，也非不可避免。如果我们作为一个社会，想要解决这个问题，如果我们愿意更平均地分担成本，如果我们在较长一段时间内实施上述建议，我们就可以创建可持续、安全、稳定、社交和让所有人满意的家园和社区。
Source: Coming Home
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