Convivial Housing

 Eco Housing at Snods Edge: an experiment in conviviality. 

 

During a long ministry of fifty years following my Deaconing in 1969, a constant theme in that ministry has been housing.

 

As a curate I founded a housing project for homeless young people, Nightcap, in Bolton in 1971.

 

I also created a guerrilla housing movement ‘squatting’ families in empty houses in my parish which were awaiting demolition for an urban motorway

 

I have served on both the boards of Church Army Housing (later English Churches Housing) and Hanover Housing.

 

In my work with Toc H housing development and the re-development of the property portfolio were a main preoccupation especially with regard to the Head Office re-location which was achieved through the development of the site into a sixteen unit housing development aimed at the over 55’s.

 

I am now living in the Vicarage at Snods Edge in Northumberland, in the Diocese of Newcastle.

 

The house has seven bedrooms, stands in spacious grounds, with woodland, an Orchard, Allotments and Lawns.

 

I have been informed that a plan to convert the property into a pair of semi detached houses has been considered in the past.

 

But, currently, the house stands in an isolated position on Burnmill Bank, opposite the Church and the Church Hall in a village with four other houses.

 

The Parish Council of Shotley Low Quarter covers the Civil Parish, this has a total of 250 houses spread over a wide area and with the largest development of housing, Bridge Island, on the border with Shotley Bridge which is in the County of Durham.

 

There is a proposed development of a brown field site on the edge of the parish, this would substantially increase the number of houses in the Civil Parish but there is resistance to this development partly because of the lack of affordable or rentable properties proposed under the scheme.

 

The current congregation (50/60 people) of St John’s Church travel to the church by private transport, there is no bus service on a Sunday. Attendance therefore implies a strong commitment to the worship and style of services offered by the Church even though St John’s is in many ways a very traditional Anglican Church with a tradition of Parish Eucharist on a Sunday Morning.

 

My vision for the proposal that I am making is that a small community could be developed by the creation of a cluster of houses and apartments built in the grounds of the Vicarage.

 

My experience in Toc H was that a classic formula for house building would be 1/3rd, 1/3rd, 1/3rd. Meaning that the cost of land, the cost of building and the profit would each amount to a 1/3rd of the overall cost of any redevelopment.

 

This formula when applied in this context could make any such scheme extremely viable as the land is already owned and there would be no pressure to achieve a profit, especially if, as I would propose, the scheme is developed as a co-op.

 

It would also be a consideration that by the use of covenants it might be possible to achieve a scheme which would be self defined as a Christian Housing Development: for example St John’s Court?

 

The proposal would be to build on the Vicarage site and the associated Glebe Land, currently undeveloped, a number of family homes.

 

Each house would be built on the principles currently seen at the Hockerton Project, Nr Newark which are described as solar passive eco houses. Such houses could be built as co-housing based around co-operative principles.

 

The site has access via the current Vicarage entrance opposite the Church and is situated on some six acres of open land with views to the South. There would be, in addition to the houses, opportunity to build small workshops thereby providing an income to the residents.

 

The site could be further developed with rainwater harvesting, reed bed drainage, tree planting resulting in properties that would benefit from very low bills as a result of the use of renewable energy systems, ground heat and insulation with minimum impact as a result of, for example, using turf roofing.  

 

This eco development could be developed together with some affordable housing which might be rented alongside a similar mixed development of housing aimed at the over fifties.

 

The recently announced Archbishop’s Commission on Housing, Church and Community has set out its stall out in the following way:

 

Most of us are affected in some way by the housing crisis. Indeed, we are seeing mounting problems, from unaffordable rents and insecure tenancies to poor quality housing and gross inequalities in housing wealth. But as is too often the case, it is the poorest who bear the brunt.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that judgment is linked to justice, namely, in the way in which we treat those who are most vulnerable and weakest. Out of that extraordinary passage comes the Christian call to work for the welfare of everyone in our society, including shelter and a good home for all. 

The Church – working with other public, private and voluntary organisations that share this vision – has a significant contribution to make in this area. We have land and resources that can be used to help meet the need for more affordable housing.We have social capital that can be used to uphold people’s right to a decent and secure home. We have a long history and expertise in community-building that can be used to shape new developments where people can flourish.

 

Encouraged by this vision it would be my hope and proposal that the opportunities afforded by the availability of land, the social and ethical needs stated by the Archbishop’s Commission and the evidence of housing need in both urban and rural areas will as a minimum encourage the diocese of Newcastle to explore this proposal further.

 

Two members of the congregation at Snods Edge have recently put their house on the market.

 

They are looking to downsize in preparation for the future, but they have no properties in view and described their actions to me as a ‘risk of faith’.

 

The possible redevelopment of church land in Shotley Low Quarter Civil Parish to respond to housing need and to create a community that is an expression of Christian faith in practice a contemporary parable which would as the Archbishop’s Commission challenges:

 

a)    Illustrate the Gospel imperative to work for the welfare of everyone in our society.

 

b)    Use land and resources to help meet the need for more affordable housing.

 

c)     Build social capital to uphold people’s right to a decent and secure home.

 

d)    Create an environment for human flourishing.

 

e)     Contribute to the Diocesan Initiative to become carbon neutral by 2030

 

 

 

Revd Geoff Purcell Smith

30th April 2019

 

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