The New Housing Hub

The National New Housing hub is a cross-denominational network that seeks to connect, equip, resource and inspire Christians to engage positively with new housing communities in a context in which building new homes is a (need and) priority.

It began with the Wichelstowe housing development near Swindon, in 2008 when Revd Ali Boulton, a Southern Counties Baptist Association Regional Minister, now one of the Hub’s directors, with her husband and a number of local Christians from across different traditions, felt God calling them to a new social housing development being planned (c.4000 new homes). Through a grant from the Housing Association Sovereign Housing, Ali and other ‘pioneers’ were able to run activities on the estate like a community day, a local newsletter, welcome hampers for new residents, a youth group, in addition to planting and establishing a new church ‘The Stowe’.

Since then, a national grassroots network has evolved, to support other churches, groups of churches, pioneering missional communities, dioceses and ecumenical groups to shape and bless new housing developments. The hub now engages over 220 people of various denominations (including URC, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Baptist) through talks and training workshops, a yearly conference, and a host of resources on their website. Ali was clear that the hub takes a very ‘light-touch’ approach, providing resources to engaged groups rather than enforcing a top-down set of ideas: ‘it’s a vision we’re giving away’.

This hub has two main goals: firstly, living incarnationally as a relational presence in new communities and secondly, prophetically speaking up for ‘not-yet’ residents in strategic planning decisions with developers, councils, housing associations, the government ) for new estates. Ali said, ‘you need people to be prophetically speaking into planning decisions, asking what does this community need? But that can only come to life If you’ve got people on the ground when the houses come into being’, Ali also acknowledged that different groups in the hub will have different giftings and strengths, so some will focus on one aspect more than the other. 

As well as specific activities like community fun days, welcome hampers, and youth groups, a lot of the first goal is simply about listening and intentionally building relationships with local residents, often providing the kind of relational support and social capital residents might not otherwise access. For example for many of the social tenants on the Wichelstowe estate, this was their first experience of a home that wasn’t a hostel) and Ali and her team were able to provide support such as paying bills and budgeting for the first time to those tenants, activities which, as Ali pointed out ‘contribute to keeping people in housing, which is significant’.

In terms of the second aim, Ali noted that the need for community halls and spaces is  rarely considered ‘a first priority’ by developers or councils on new estates and emphasised the need to be strategic:  ‘these things don’t just happen’. In the case of Wichelstowe, before Ali had even moved in, her team of pioneers had been involved in conversations with planners, housing associations and the council, one of the outcomes of which was to incorporate a community centre in design plans for the wider estate. Other examples from estates in the hub network have included speaking up for doctors surgeries, play areas, schools, bus services and higher quotas of social housing:  the ‘soft community stuff’, Ali said, which won’t bring in a big profit for developers but will make a significant difference to residents. Ali also raised the point that usually when local people are engaging with planning processes it is about protesting against new housing, whereas the hub is about nurturing and supporting the collective church to be a  ‘prophetic voice of welcome’ on new estates. 

Great Western Park, Didcot

Great Western Park Church on the Great Western Park (GWP) estate in Didcot, South Oxfordshire, is one of the churches connected with the New Housing Hub Network.  The example of GWP illustrates the approach of a church that has engaged with a housing estate later in its development, focusing less on strategic planning and more on being a relational presence.  Its ministry and outreach on the estate began when Revd Mark Bodeker began as a curate at All Saints Church in the centre of Didcot, a medium sized, relatively affluent town of around 25,0000,  in 2013. When complete, the estate will have c.3000 homes aimed largely at young middle class professional families, with around 1/3 homes social housing. Mark saw the impact that the developing estate was beginning to have on the town and church congregation: ‘it was just bigger, influential and more demanding of the existing town, than I could ever have imagined’ and felt that there was a relational and missional opportunity to engage with the new residents. 

Despite an initially unsuccessful attempt to gather an ecumenical group of churches across Didcot who felt called to ministry on the estate, building on a summer holiday activities club run on GWP, which had provided space to start building relationships and trust with some local residents, Mark successfully secured the support of the Bishop of Dorchester, +Colin Fletcher who invited him toid for a ‘new communities’ funds from the diocese of Oxford to formally establish a church on GWP estate. Mark and his family have since moved to a vicarage on the estate, and a church has now been established which meets in a new secondary school building.  The church is now supported by a steering committee of local Anglican Churches which the Bishop chairs and All Saints Church, where Mark did his curacy, provides lots of the ‘structural’ for GWP, including treasury and administrative support. 

Though the church now has c.70-80 attending its monthly services, it is the regular community activities that are Mark’s priority, much of which include a community café, a messy church ministry, celebration events at Easter and Christmas holidays, and youth work around the estate. Mark reflected that despite the ‘middle class veneer’ of many of the families on the estate, through the church’s activities, he has witnessed ‘an enormous spread of issues’, affecting residents from mortgage debt, to social isolation, to mental health issues, and has observed that many people on the estate have a limited capacity to get to know their neighbours, due to the pressures of working and family life.  For Mark, the ministry of GWP is about both sharing the good news of Jesus as a church, and providing a space for  community connections to be fostered, which in his view would help relieve some of the social issues he has observed. ‘We are providing a narrative that says   ‘There is a world out which would massively enhance your own, if you would come and get to know your neighbours’’.  

Important to this work has been collaboration with the housing associations on the estate, who provided Mark and the church with a modest grant to support the running of community events in the early phase, and Mark meets regularly with a member of staff from one of the associations. One example of how the church has been engaged with more strategic planning decisions in putting together a joint bid with a number of local youth charities to run a new community centre on the estate.

Tips & Challenges

Witness & Discipleship

Whilst witnessing christian love has been a motivating factor for all of the churches in this study, and for many, their housing-action has been part of the wider mission of the church, mission is ingrained in the approach of New Housing Hub in a way which is especially distinctive and explicit.  Many, of the churches engaged with the hub have set up new churches on estates, such as GWP and the Stowe Church, and this can be seen as part of a wider effort to reach people with the good news of Christianity as well as a  wider reimagining of what ‘church’ looks like in the 21st century. Ali said ‘For me, its about more than just housing, it’s a Kairos moment that we’re in’ She made the point that a lot of our churches are no longer in residential areas, and with no established churches in these estates that ‘gives churches an amazing opportunity to ask what God wants us to do in this area, to journey with a community and see what emerges’.

Building community

The examples in this case study can be said to have a more direct focus on supporting and sustaining community, as opposed to building homes or tackling housing issues: ‘on the one we’re not directly tackling the housing crisis because the hub in not campaigning for more housing per se, but on another level, we’re intervening by creating a culture of welcome and helping to keep people in housing’ Ali reflected.  Both Ali and Mark emphasised an approach which is relational, based on presence alongside and listening. Actually living incarnationally onsite was an important part of establishing relationships of trust with new residents, Mark reflected that for him when living onsite he had ‘a legitimacy which you didn’t have when you were parachuting yourself in everyday’. Both he and Ali were wary of the risk of imposing an agenda on a new community ‘We have to let something emerge naturally at the right time…otherwise the risk is that we rush in, it’s not sustainable,’.

Partnership

Partnership with housing associations, local authorities and other groups is at the heart of the approach of church groups engaging with new housing in this chapter. In the context of Wichelstowe, consistent and strong relationships with two members of the local council throughout the estate’s development had been crucial to the flourishing of the work of Ali and her team, and the council have now invited Ali and the Stowe Church to be part of a future housing development. Ali said: ‘once you’ve got a track record or progress, then you’re invited in…you punch above your weight when you partner with other people’.

The churches in this chapter also demonstrate the importance of a wider support network for churches, both through the hub itself and through structural diocesan support in the case of GWP, the Bishop of Dorchester, whose support Mark said had been ‘amazing’.