Church sells estate despite peer concerns

Finance | 1 Mar 2006

The Church of England has sold Octavia Hill Estates in London to a commercial property buyer despite strong lobbying and criticism from Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Dick Newby. Lord Newby maintained that the estates were built to provide good quality housing for those on modest means and that the sale would be ignoring the broader social mission of the Church.

He argued that the Church Commissioners had a responsibility to the community as well as to their bank balance. "This is a deeply depressing outcome for the future of social housing in London. The Church Commissioners have completely ignored the broader social mission of the Church and have been deaf to the views of tenants, the Diocese of Southwark and the many parliamentarians who have expressed a view on the matter."

A spokesperson from the Church Commission said in response that Lord Newby's fears were "groundless". He pointed out that the estate was not being used as social housing before it was sold to the commercial developer so the tenants were therefore unaffected by the changeover, and that the Church could not justify keeping the estates on as a long-term investment.

Directory: Church Commissioners for England

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.