Second homes in Charlbury (Debate)

Sun 3 Sep 2023, 14:17 (last edited on Sun 3 Sep 2023, 15:58)

Interesting to read that the majority of clergy think that the UK is no longer a Christian society, although I haven't drilled down into the survey.

The Church of England owns a significant amount of land in the UK, but the exact amount is difficult to determine due to the complex nature of its ownership structure. Here is what we know from the search results:

The Church Commissioners, who manage the Church of England's investment portfolio, own a land and property portfolio worth £2 billion, which includes 105,000 acres of land.

The church owns about 81,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of land, held by the church commissioners, 42 dioceses and 12,500 parishes.

The church owned some two million acres of glebe land (an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support the clergy) in the past.

The church even owns property in London's West End - 15% of its commercial portfolio, in fact, mainly within a shared interest in the Pollen Estate.

The Church of England has some 16,000 church buildings, in 13,000 parishes covering the whole of England, as well as 43 cathedrals. Together they form a unique collection of buildings; between 12,000 and 13,000.

Based on these sources, it is safe to say that the Church of England owns a significant amount of land in the UK, likely in the hundreds of thousands of acres. However, the exact amount is difficult to determine due to the complex nature of its ownership structure.

The UK homeless charity Shelter estimated in 2019 that the number of people in England who were entirely homeless or in temporary accommodation was 280,000. Can't the wealthy Church take them in?

Also, There are 26 Bishops and Archbishops in the House of Lords12456. These are the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester, and the next 21 most senior diocesan bishops (with the exception of the Bishop in Europe and the Bishop of Sodor and Man). They are known as the Lords Spiritual and sit in the House of Lords on an ex officio basis.

What on earth are these unelected people doing there?

Also - According to the English Housing Survey 2021 to 20221, there were 809,000 second homes owned by households in England in 2021-22, which is an increase of 13% or just under 100,000 homes on 2010-11. However, some households have more than one second home, so the actual number of second homes is higher. The Guardian estimates that before the pandemic, 772,000 households in England had second homes, of which 495,000 were in the UK. The actual number of second homes is higher, as some households have more than one; their rough estimate is a little over 550,000.

I don't know how many second homes there are in Charlbury.  Does the Town Council?  What is it going to do about it?

It's simply unfair.