Children will have access to free breakfasts during the summer holidays through a new initiative. Portsmouth City councillors George and Brian Madgwick are personally donating £4,000 to fund the scheme. The breakfasts will be held at St Michael and All Angels Church in Paulsgrove every weekend through the summer holidays. George Madgwick said they hoped it would "ease the pressure" of the current cost of living crisis.He said: "Paulsgrove is an area with a lot of social housing, higher rates of unemployment and lower income in general and there's been a really noticeable increase in the number of people using the foodbank recently."Our schools do a fantastic job supporting families during term time and we wanted to do something to extend that into the summer."According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service the scheme is being funded by the two councillors personally, rather than being financed by Portsmouth City Council. It comes after George Madgwick pledged to use his councillor allowance to fund projects in his ward. He added: "Families that have been just about managing to cope for the last few years have been tipped over the edge by inflation, particularly the huge increase in energy costs."We have the ability to give back and felt this would be the most effective way of doing it."The initiative will start after 23 July when the school year ends and run until the end of August. Food parcels and packed lunches will also be provided to families.
The Church Commissioners for England has appointed Jennifer Longstaff, formerly associate director of Savills’ Newcastle office, as Strategic Land and Affordable Housing Asset Manager. Longstaff (see photo) will help drive forward the Church Commissioners’ ambitions for affordable housing delivery, particularly in rural areas, across the Church Commissioners’ land portfolio. The Commissioners’ real asset portfolio includes significant landholdings, which have a critical role to play in supporting rural communities and maintaining their vibrancy across the country, including through the delivery of new housing. A chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Longstaff has nearly 15 years’ experience working for Savills undertaking project development and securing planning permissions to support new developments, including rural housing.At Savills, she managed several smaller development sites, as well as successful larger housing and mixed-use projects across the North of England. She also worked closely with the Church Commissioners’ teams as a development consultant on their rural housing projects across England, with great success.The Church Commissioners expect to deliver 9,000 affordable homes across its land portfolio in the next 15 years and, additionally, are seeking to accelerate the delivery of small-scale rural affordable housing sites across England, in partnership with housing associations and local housebuilders. Recent successes that Longstaff will seek to replicate include collaborations with English Rural Housing Association (ERHA) to provide homes of mixed affordable tenures in Shepherdswell, Dover, and local needs homes in Mersham, Kent, to be kept in perpetuity as an affordable housing option for the local community.Joanna Loxton, head of strategic land investment at the Church Commissioners, says: “We are delighted by Jennifer’s appointment and are looking forward to working with her regarding our commitment to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing across our land portfolio, aligned with the values outlined in the Archbishops’ Coming Home report that was published last year. “Jennifer’s extensive experience and proven track record, successfully managing both strategic land and rural housing projects, will offer valuable support in driving forward our mission to boost the delivery of affordable housing across the country.”
Mandated to drive ‘significant cultural and structural change on issues of racial justice within the Church of England’, the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice (“ACRJ”), headed by The Rt Hon Lord Paul Boateng, is charged with monitoring, holding to account and supporting the implementation of the forty-seven recommendations of the Racial Justice Taskforce which were laid out in the Taskforce’s comprehensive 2020 report From Lament to Action.In his foreword letter to the First Report, Lord Boateng writes, “This is a painful process, and necessarily so, in that the response to an examination of racism and the exposure of injustice is often one of denial and defensiveness or obscuration and delay. This must not go unchallenged.”Released today, the Commission states: “In this, the first of the six reports the ACRJ will produce, we have outlined the beginning of this work, reporting on the formulation of the seven workstreams in the last three months, and the progress of work on the five priority areas and the forty-seven recommendations identified in From Lament to Action."Subject to the availability of appropriate support and resources, the Commission will produce a further report by the end of 2022 and will report twice a year thereafter. The Commission will conclude its work in October 2024 with a final report drawing the work of the three years together.” Lord Boateng, commenting further in his foreword letter on the issues of the resources required to implement the Taskforce and the ACRJ’s recommendations says: “We have taken the view that a minimum of £20 million needs to be set aside… to fund the delivery of From Lament to Action, and to meet the cost of such recommendations that we make within the lifetime of the Commission.”The Report makes clear the importance of each Diocese within the Church of England developing a Racial Justice Strategy to as to make the most impact with the resources available, and sets a time limit for this [Patronage, Governance & Funding, Page 39]The Report makes comment on the issue of monuments and slavery and calls for a strengthening of the guidance issued in this regard to create an appropriate balance with respect to the planning requirements for historic conservation so as to stress the paramount importance of equitable access to Christian worship, and which reflects the Church’s commitment to racial justice. [Slavery, Page 21]The Report also highlights the need for wider reform of the Church of England’s Consistory Court process and calls for greater diversity and inclusion in its administration. [Slavery, Pages 23 & 24]Commenting on the first Report, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, said: “We strongly welcome the first report of the Commission on Racial Justice and the clear, independent scrutiny it provides. I am very grateful to Lord Boateng and his Commission members for the work they have done so far. This report identifies the difficult and long path to eradicating the pain and injustice felt by so many, but provides us with hope that through the Commission’s work, these issues will be addressed.”The Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend Stephen Cottrell added: “We are encouraged to see the work of the Commission in challenging current practice and stimulating culture change in the Church of England. It is important for us to engage with these ideas and continue to build both support and action. This reminds us that justice lies at the heart of the Gospels and it is our hope that the whole Church will be inspired to commit in earnest to this transformation.”
