Parishioners urged to oppose multi-million property sale

Tuesday 06 August 2019

Jersey’s Housing Minister is urging St. Helier residents to oppose the £2.9m sale of a former parish-run property that was home to dozens of OAPs and an adjoining nursery to an anonymous developer....

St. Helier House, which occupies a prime site overlooking People’s Park, closed in 2018 over fears that its construction meant it was potentially unsafe.

Because it had no sprinkler system or ‘dry riser’ pipes, there were concerns that if a fire broke out similar to that which killed 80 people in Grenfell Towers in London in 2017, a similar thing could happen in the island.

Officials also said the property, which was built in 1963, had become outdated.

Pictured: Constable Simon Crowcroft keen to see the deal go through and believes it will benefit parishioners.

St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft wants to sell the property and Westmount Nursey to an undisclosed developer for £2.9m and re-invest the money in new housing in the parish.

He says for commercial reasons he can’t reveal who wants to buy the property. At the time, he commented "that the net proceeds of the sale of the sites, after all associated costs have been accounted for, are allocated to the Building Reserve, allowing the Parish to undertake projects, including the relocation of Westmount Day Nursey."

Both Dandara and Andium Homes say they are not the developers.

The suggested sale will have to be approved at a Parish Assembly at the Town Hall tomorrow night at 19:00.

But Housing Minister, Deputy Sam Mézec is less positive about the move, and says he’s "deeply concerned" that the secrecy means there are no "assurances at all that the plans for the site will actually meet the housing needs of islands."

Pictured: Deputy Sam Mézec opposing the proposed sale because of fears over who will develop it.

He adds: "We cannot be sure that the purchaser will not be cramming as many tiny flats as possible onto the site to sell on at extortionate rates, potentially not even to owner occupiers, but to foreign buy-to-let or lock-up-and- leave investors.

"At a time when rent inflation is high and affordable homes waiting lists are getting longer. I do not believe that a public authority should be potentially contributing to the problem by selling off a site like this without guarantees that the development will actually meet the housing needs of ordinary islanders."

He’ll be leading the opposition at the parish hall meeting tomorrow, and is urging parishioners to back him.

If he is successful, he says he wants to work with Constable Crowcroft to make sure the building is developed for the benefit of parishioners and not developers.