Minister: intervention needed to stop “damaging” land banking

Thursday 01 October 2020

Moves must be made to stop developers from buying up land and ‘sitting on it’ while the island faces a housing shortage, according to the Environment Minister.

In a Scrutiny hearing about the Island Plan this week, Deputy John Young described land-banking as “damaging,” saying that there should be “greater intervention” from the Government to stop it.

Land-banking occurs when developers buy up large chunks of developable land and do nothing with it, or fail to act on planning permission granted to develop the site.

The issue came up after Scrutinteer Constable Mike Jackson cited how, in past Island Plans, some rezoned land had not been developed in a “timely manner” and had failed, “...to meet the needs of those that the States had in mind when the decision to rezone the land was made.”

Constable Jackson also queried whether there could be a preventative measure put in place to have rezoned land carry with it a timescale for when developments must begin. 

Pictured: Constable Mike Jackson highlighted how "currently, rezoning places no obligation on the landowner to release the land development within a timescale." 

In his response, the Environment Minister said it was something he would “love” to do, explaining that “we know developers have a tendency to do 'land banking', get consents and then sit and wait until they can maximise their market, which is a very damaging situation.”

He continued by stating he would take “advice about whether or not we can put something in the Planning Law to enable us to do that” and that the key “tools we’ve got are the policies themselves, and then we’ve got the issue of the planning obligation agreements that we would put in place.” 

The Minister also expressed his view that “in terms of affordable housing sites, we need a greater element of intervention by the States, potentially buying and acquiring those sites and making them available to Andium. That is the way which completely removes that uncertainty and gives the States control over delivery.

“But I think it’s important with affordable housing, whatever methods we do, that it is maintained in perpetuity and that today’s affordable home doesn’t become tomorrow’s unaffordable home.” 

According to the latest House Price Index, the price of an 'average' family home currently stands at £532,000.

Meanwhile, a report released last year suggested that Jersey was facing a housing shortage, with 7,000 needing to be built by 2030 to accommodate the growing population.