‘The Battle for Housing Quality’ - upcoming online event
Cost pressures create viability challenges for all tenures
Our termly Coming Home online event at 6pm on 14th January 2026 will get to grips with ‘The battle for housing quality: upholding our housing values in a time of financial and political pressure’
The Coming Home report proposed that a distinctively Christian approach to housing and community could be encapsulated in five core values (conveniently alliterated to begin with S!): Safe, Stable, Sociable, Sustainable and Satisfying.
How does this work in practice? What do those values look like when designing and developing social housing today? And given the current financial and political pressures, can we still deliver social housing that fully reflects those values?
The event will be chaired by the Church of England’s lead bishop for Housing, Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani. Join us on 14th January to:
Dive into the past, to see how the distinctive approach taken by an early 20th century housing association and its charismatic founder foreshadowed the values in Coming Home.
Consider the present, by exploring a RIBA prize winning social housing development that illustrates a very similar set of housing values.
Look to the future, by learning how the Church Development Agency (CDA) has created a 'Five S Design Guide' and how an architect is seeking to apply the principles to one of the first CDA housing sites in Birmingham.
Speakers:
Former housing minister Eddie Hughes will present the Church Development Agency’s new Five S Design Guide for architects, developers and builders.
Sandy Greenhill of Vivid Architects Ltd will discuss her experience of applying the five values to the design of Newbigin Gardens in Winson Green, Birmingham.
Charina Coronado, partner at Pollard Thomas Edwards, will introduce the Dover Court Estate in Islington, which won the RIBA London award in 2024.
Jonathan Tame, Advisor to the CofE Bishop for Housing, will talk about the pioneering work of Fr Basil Jellicoe, who founded the St Pancras House Improvement Society 100 years ago.
Moderated by Bishop Guli, the speakers will respond to questions from the audience and explore how best to develop social housing that reflects the distinct values of the Coming Home report in today’s challenging context.
Concluding reflection
By the Rt Revd Dr Eleanor Sanderson, bishop of Hull.
Join us on 14th January to grapple with housing quality and distinctiveness in a time of acute cost challenges. Register here for free.
