The Church of England has established a commission to look at how it can contribute to increasing the amount of social housing across the UK.

The 10-member commission comprises housing experts, academics and theologians and will meet over the next 18 months to examine, in the church’s words, “how it can build on its own work in housing and contribute to the national debate on policy”.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said the UK’s housing crisis was “one of the major challenges facing this country and it is hitting the poorest the hardest”.