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Churches are suspiciously absent. Aren't they the biggest landowners everywhere?
by Yizahi 9y ago
Churches are suspiciously absent. Aren't they the biggest landowners everywhere?
- pjc50 9y agoThe church owns a lot, but actually divested itself of quite a lot of its property portfolio in the 80s and 90s. Linked is some related stats: https://whoownsengland.org/2017/01/01/who-owns-england-what-we-know-so-far-where-next/ https://whoownsengland.org/2017/01/01/who-owns-england-what-... - CofE does not appear there either.
- gsnedders 9y agoWithin the Church of England, I believe the legal status is that the minister (or vicar, or whatever title they hold; I believe titles are relatively inconsistent!) has the freehold of the property (albeit under various bits of ecclesiastical law that limit their powers).
- ascorbic 9y agoThe map isn't supposed to be comprehensive. They don't have the data from the Church of England, mainly because it's not subject to FoI. But no, churches are big landowners but far from the biggest.
- literallycancer 9y agoI'd guess various state institutions like "state forests" are usually the biggest landholders. E.g. in Czech the churches are only claiming some 1-4% of the country in the restitution process (back in the day, everything was nationalized by the communists, so this is the way you can get it back).