Church of England spends £530,000 on a six-bedroom house for the vicar of Yorkshire Dales parish - Yorkshire Post

Home

Residents of a Yorkshire Dales parish have criticised the Church of England for their decision to acquire a luxury six-bedroom property for use as a vicarage.

Monday, 30th November 2020, 4:07 pm

Updated Tuesday, 1st December 2020, 10:34 am

The vicar's new six-bedroom home in Reeth

The Diocese of Leeds completed the purchase of Langhorne Lodge in Reeth for £530,000 in January and it is currently occupied by the vicar of Swaledale with Arkengarthdale, the Reverend Caroline Hewlett, who lives alone.

The Reverend Hewlett was forced to move from the parish vicarage beside Reeth Bridge following the flash floods which struck Arkengarthdale in July 2019. Water levels in the Arkle Beck rose so much that the house was engulfed by around 4ft of water in just 45 minutes.

Sign up to our daily newsletter

The i newsletter cut through the noise

Although parishioners accept that it would be unreasonable to expect the vicar, who has held the ministry since 2006, to return to the flood-prone property, they have questioned why such a large and expensive home was bought as a replacement in an area where few young people can afford to get on the housing ladder.

The old vicarage is currently being renovated after being damaged in the flash floods of July 2019

The Reverend Hewlett had been staying in a holiday cottage after the vicarage, which the Church has owned since 1969, was damaged. It was also badly flooded during Hurricane Charley in 1986, and plans to provide alternative accommodation were already afoot several years before the latest floods.

The deal went through several months before the local Parochial Church Council sold the former Arkengarthdale C of E Primary School to private buyers who paid just £30,000 more than the Upper Dales Community Land Trust, who had planned to convert the building into affordable rented homes for local families, offered. The Church body claimed they were bound by charity law to sell the property to the highest bidder.

Amanda Fuller has been living in a two-bedroom flat since her family's home in Whaw, a hamlet near Reeth, was badly damaged in the flash floods, and is not expecting to be able to move back in until mid-December following the completion of extensive restoration work.

She says the Diocese's actions appear hypocritical and have thrown wider issues surrounding housing supply and affordability in the Upper Dales into sharp focus, especially given that several families who were victims of the floods have yet to be able to move back into their properties, and in some cases are living in temporary accommodation up to 40 miles away.

"It's a bit bizarre. It's not about the vicar herself - her old house was right next to the river and she didn't want to go back. It just niggles and it doesn't sit right that the Church has been prepared to spend that much money while everyone is still flooded out, and there is limited housing around here.

"It's a unique area in that it costs a fortune to buy, but relatively little to rent. If you're not a farmer or you don't own your own business, incomes are very low, and I've never seen a job advertised for more than minimum wage. There are lots of second homes and holiday lets, and the housing pool is somewhat reduced. It's very difficult for people to be able to afford a house.

"To take over such a large property for one person is a contradiction of the Church's usual values that it preaches. It all comes down to the issues surrounding the sale of the school - there's no direct financial link, but the Church is a big landowner and they were quibbling over the £30,000 difference between the two offers (from the eventual buyer and the Upper Dales Community Land Trust)."

Mrs Fuller's 27-year-old son has returned to live with her during lockdown, having been working abroad, but cannot afford to to buy a home locally.

"There is very little affordable housing or many suitable properties that could be converted. Lots of people in the Dales own multiple properties, some of which they rent out, so people can't have it both ways. Farms often have cottages which they sell or rent out as holiday lets. There's a massive cavern between house prices and incomes, and everyone wants to make money, but you can't be hypocritical about it as the Church are being.

"The school is a classic example of a property that could have been converted into affordable flats or cottages."

A spokesman for the Diocese of Leeds pointed out that the building has been acquired to take into consideration the needs of future vicars as well as those of the current incumbent.

"The purchase of a new property at Reeth marks the diocese's ongoing commitment to ministry in our communities.

"Such properties are chosen in consideration of the needs of both current, and future clergy and are dictated by the available housing stock.

"Financing of such purchases is a diocesan responsibility and monies from the eventual sale of the old, flood damaged vicarage will go towards that end.

"There is no financial connection with the sale of Arkengarthdale School, which was the property of the Parochial Church Council, not the diocese."