On Thursday, 17th October, last week in the House of Commons Josh Babarinde, the Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne, organised a debate on the subject entitled “Former Church Sites – Church Commissioners – in the House of Commons” A government minister Marsha de Cordova “The Second Church Estates Commissioner” She was the Labour MP for Battersea. The calls and responses can be seen below.

Josh: What steps the Church is taking to support the development of housing on derelict former church sites.

Marsha: When a church is closed, a formal legal process under the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011 is followed. There are currently 127 cases in which a new use is being found for closed church buildings; only two are cleared sites, and they are waiting for disposal.

Josh: I welcome the hon. Lady to her place. Eastbourne declared a housing emergency last year, and the key thing we need to do to address that emergency is build our way out of it. The commissioners preside over a perfect brownfield site for housing: the site of the former St Elisabeth’s church on Victoria Drive, just down the road from where I went to school. It has been derelict for 20 years, and since the church on the site was demolished four years ago, there has been no sign of development whatsoever. I urge the commissioners to develop that site into affordable housing, and I appeal to the hon. Lady for an urgent update on the situation.

Marsha: Since 2022, the Church Commissioners have been working with the diocese of Chichester to market the site and find a developer. I am pleased to say that a developer is in the process of agreeing to a conditional contract for a mixed-use development that will include convenience retail and housing, some of which will be much-needed affordable housing, which the hon. Member mentioned. That development will need planning permission, and that is being explored with the local authority now.