SETTING UP A CHURCH OF ENGLAND HOUSING ASSOCIATION

When we set up the business, we were providing a lot of informal advice to people involved with the Church of England, who were taking forward the Archbishop of Canterbury’s report “Coming Home”, looking at how and what the Church should be doing to address the quantitative and qualitative challenges faced throughout the UK on the provision of affordable housing.

The Church of England owns significant land and property throughout England. They considered the best approach was to establish their own housing association and we were invited to put in a quotation to lead on this work.

Whatifgroup did not have the in-house skills and experience to be able to address this enormous task alone, so we worked with two of our close associates: Geraldine Kay and Keith Tallentire; both of whom have extensive experience in senior management in housing associations; and, Kevin had previously worked with Keith to set up the Middlesbrough Development Company.

To achieve registration as a housing association there is a two-part regulatory process and stage one is now complete. The process involves a substantial amount of documents being prepared and submitted. We have also worked to support the Church in the development of its governance processes and ensuring that the development of the housing association is embedded in the churches architecture.

As of May 2023 this work is still ongoing. (https://www.hamag.co.uk/Church-of-England-unveils-plan-to-become-provider-of-social-housing)