THE headquarters of the Church of England in Oxfordshire is to be sold off in favour of a move to a newer building.

The Diocese of Oxford has announced it wants to find a new home for its North Hinksey offices and will discuss the issue at a synod meeting on March 21.

The diocese is currently based at Diocesan Church House in North Hinksey Lane.

But church officials said the building has become impractical and is no longer big enough to house its growing team of staff.

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It is is also in need of significant refurbishment and the diocese believes a new building would be more cost-effective.

Director of communications Sarah Meyrick said: “We need to move for a number of reasons. The current building has lots of little office rooms and that makes meetings difficult.

“We have a multi-academy trust now with an expanding staff.

“We need to move to somewhere more suitable for the 21st century.”

Last month the Bishop’s Council voted to move after exploring other options such as building on the current site. The synod will now look at potential new sites.

But Ms Meyrick said no decision had been made on where the new headquarters would be.

She said: “We are looking at a few specific proposals but I cannot say where yet.

“It will be in close reach of Oxford because that makes sense for our staff and because Oxford is at the centre of the diocese.

“We had looked at a number of options and moving is not a decision that we have taken lightly.”

Ms Meyrick said the diocese now planned to sell the North Hinksey building.

The decision to move away from Diocesan Church House follows the Bishop of Oxford’s departure from North Oxford.

In October the Diocese bought a £1.7m house in Kidlington after Wolfson College asked the church to stop renting a property in Linton Road where bishops lived for decades. The house had been rented at below market rate and it is believed the diocese did not want to pay the current market rent for the substantial property.