Select a region
Andium will lose £57,000 for every month that it holds onto land at Kensington Place earmarked for hospital expansion, Ministers have said as they pushed back on a request to defer the Government's £16m "strategic purchase" of the site.
Tomorrow, States Members are due to debate a proposal by Deputy Lyndon Farnham seeking to postpone the Government buying the cleared site south of the General Hospital where hundreds of homes were originally due to be developed.
Deputy Farnham – who led the single-site Our Hospital Project, which has been dropped by the current Council of Ministers – wants the land sale to be deferred until the Assembly knows more about the expected costs of the new multi-site hospital plan.
The transaction would be between the site’s current owner, Andium Homes, which bought the former Stafford and Revere hotels for £7.8m in December 2021, and the Government.
Lodging its official comments to that proposition, the Council of Ministers has urged States Members to reject Deputy Farnham’s call.
It argues: “Ministers are intending to acquire land for the public from a company owned by the public, so we deliver new health care facilities.
“The risks of proceeding are limited, as we are acquiring an asset, while the risks of not proceeding are considerable.
“Not proceeding leaves a fundamental uncertainty for Andium, delays social housing, and means unnecessary risk and delay in delivering new health care facilities.
“Ministers accept the need for challenge and scrutiny but ask Members to reject the proposition.
“A number of governments and elected Assemblies have wrestled with delivering new facilities, and it is essential that this Government and Assembly finally deliver. Further delay will only negatively affect confidence in the programme delivery.
“We should continue to look positively forward, moving at a good pace, and ensuring that this Assembly finally delivers the facilities that are needed by islanders.”
Ministers also argue that delaying the purchase would be unfair to Andium.]
"The crucial point is that we need to provide Andium with more certainty and should not leave them in the position of owning land expected to be needed for new health care facilities," they explained.
"If the land is not acquired by the public at this time, it means that Andium will have £16 million of investment capital held up and will continue to pay £57,000 per month in financing costs on the site - when they need to be focusing on delivering much-needed social housing elsewhere.
"We have an obligation to treat our social housing provider fairly, and not leave them in limbo. Andium are doing good work to deliver an increasing number of good quality units and need to concentrate on viable sites. The delivery of housing is a priority."
The Council also argues that Members supported an amendment to this year’s Government Plan which set aside £51.5m to progress its hospital plans.
This included the £16m purchase of the Kensington Place site, which is more than double the 2021 purchase pricebecause, ministers say, the hotels have been demolished.
The Infrastructure Minister also recently commented that the Government may need to purchase more buildings in the Kensington Place area to expand the hospital.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.