'Use Spare Property for Housing,' Churches Told

Delegates at a groundbreaking conference in Glasgow heard yesterday that as many as fifty families a year could be provided with affordable and permanent places to live through using redundant church buildings and other land or property owned by churches.

The Make it Happen conference, organised by Scottish Churches Housing Action, has been examining practical routes to turning unused buildings into homes over the last two days.

Delegates from churches and housing organisations have been visiting projects in Glasgow and Leith, where church buildings have been handed over to housing associations and successfully turned into modern housing.

Scottish Churches Housing Action Chief Executive, Alastair Cameron, says it is a simple concept that offers churches the opportunity to make an enormous contribution to their communities.

"Churches have too many buildings and too many people don't have somewhere affordable to live. The new Communities Minister, Stewart Maxwell, has highlighted the huge difficulties in finding land for house-building," he said.

"We have specific examples of where churches have created such opportunities, and have themselves benefited hugely from taking that step. The conference will highlight them, and hopefully encourage more of the same."

Scottish Churches Housing Action has published a new Make It Happen guide to offer step-by-step help to those pressing for new uses for church buildings and land and showcases schemes that have worked in Scotland.

Handbook author, Catherine Killin, says: "People in the churches faced with these decisions are not housing professionals. We have described the process in straightforward terms to show what can be done. Communities where housing is over-priced and unaffordable to many will benefit."