£122k for consultants to review housing

Monday 29 April 2019

The government is to spend over £120,000 on a consultant-led review into how to encourage home ownership, reduce rental stress, and improve the supply and standard of local housing.

Commissioned by the Housing Policy Development Board, which was established by the Chief Minister to help deliver "sustainable long-term solutions" to local housing challenges, the review will be conducted by Altair.

Members of the board include Michael De La Haye (independent chair) and John Scally, the Executive Director of Caritas Jersey (lay member).

Housing Minister Senator Sam Mézec, Infrastructure Minister Deputy Kevin Lewis, and Treasury Minister Susie Pinel also sit on the board, alongside Deputies John Young, Gregory Guida, Lindsay Ash, Carina Alves and Connétable John Le Bailly.

Pictured: Deputy Susie Pinel, the Treasury Minister, has approved the funding for the review to be carried out.

Deputy Pinel has approved £122,780 of funding for the review to be carried out by Altair, which the Housing Minister said had a broad range of experience of the housing sector in many different countries.

"Its specialist support and recommendations will help us to deliver new and innovative housing policies and funding options that work in Jersey’s housing market and enable us to improve the supply, affordability, access to, and standard of housing," he explained.

The Minister said the Board recognised that challenges in Jersey’s housing market couldn't be solved overnight, but required "long-term solutions to ensure we have a sustainable housing market for future generations."

Pictured: The Housing Minister said the the housing policy was "a complex piece of work."

He continued: “This is a complex piece of work, which involves many different stakeholders and encompasses issues such as housing finance, the island’s legal system, land use policies and our system of housing qualifications.

"Altair has been appointed to support this work, and ensure that we can deliver coherent, well-researched and funded recommendations for implementation from 2020 onwards."

Figures released in March suggested that, over the three-year period between 2019 and 2021, Jersey will fall short of having enough homes by as many as 2,750.

Pictured: An independent report found that 7,000 more homes will be needed by 2030.

An Objective Assessment of Housing Need (OAHN) report carried out by independent consultants Arc4 showed that 7,000 extra households will be needed in Jersey by 2030 if current migration trends continue, as well as over 500 nursing home bed spaces for the island's ageing population.