RICS: Why the Church of England has faith in social housing

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has published an article in their online magazine about the Church of England’s housing ambitions, featuring interviews with the Bishop for Housing, Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, and Dan Mayes (CEO of the Church Development Agency - CDA).

The article traces a journey from the publication of the Coming Home report in 2021 to the development of Newbigin House, a former vicarage in one of the poorest parts of Birmingham, where the first social homes will be built by CDA and managed by the Church Housing Association.

Dan Mayes talks about CDA’s work and cites examples of where local churches are building partnerships with other community organisations to address both housing need and other key social issues.

Bishop Guli highlighted the Five S values in Coming Home and stressed that the Church wants ‘healthy communities and at the heart of those are good quality, affordable housing.’

Illustration by Doug Chayka (from the RICS article)