Clergy serving in parishes or in positions directly supported by the Synod should be provided with appropriate accommodation. Where a member of the clergy serves in a parish, or in a funded position such as chaplain, they will be provided with housing, or a housing allowance.


In some cases, a parish may need to rent a house for its clergy.  Where this happens, the rental agreement must be in the name of the parish.


Where a house is provided by the parish, it is normally expected that the member of the clergy will reside in it. In some circumstances the Archbishop may give approval for a member of the clergy not to reside in the house provided by the parish.   Where this occurs a housing allowance is payable.


The rate of clergy housing allowance is reviewed annually by Diocesan Council.   


Special provisions apply to the calculation of housing allowance where a clergy couple lives in private accommodation. In summary, these provide that where two married, stipended clergy persons live in a private residence, the total combined housing allowance is to be scaled according to their combined FTE, capped at 1.0 FTE and paid at 150%.  The housing allowance is then split according to the FTE of each clergy person and allocated to each clergy person's expense account in the normal way.  More information about these provisions can be found in the attached paper Clergy Couple Housing Allowance.