Member

Going back to thinking about the challenges, I appreciate that the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester understandably talks about temporary accommodation. He and I both know that we need to focus on getting those 700,000 empty homes back into being used as homes. I could be a little bit cheeky here: the Church of England is, I think, the third largest landowner in the country and one of the wealthiest institutions. I would love to see all the empty rectories being opened up or, indeed, potentially sold and the money reused to extend in that way. I appreciate that the Church Commissioners have to balance the books like everybody else, but I did go into some detail looking at this.