"Severe shortage" of homes means States target likely to fail

Wednesday 09 September 2015

It's time to get Jersey's house in order - a new report shows there’s still a “severe shortage” of affordable housing in the Island and the States look like they might have sold out on their promise to provide 1,000 new affordable homes by 2020.

It says the Island needs 150 new affordable homes every year to meet demand as the list of people needing a decent roof over their heads continues to grow - and has proposed rezoning new land for development and a tax on empty homes to get things going.

Delays developing housing on former States sites and on re-zoned land are causing setbacks for the Strategic Housing Unit (SHU) and Islanders have been concerned that planning policies are to blame. Developers are sitting on permits to build 2,000 homes but show no sign of actually getting on with construction - instead they seem to be "land hoarding" to maximise profits.

The Environment, Housing and Technical Services Scrutiny Panel says the Planning and Housing Ministers need to work together over the next few months to come up with a list of new sites by December to ensure there are 1,000 new affordable homes by 2020 - that could mean rezoning more land so that development work can go ahead.

And they want the Planning and Treasury Ministers to find funding for Andium Homes to start developing the Summerland and Ambulance sites when they become available.

But it’s not just those on lower incomes that are affected by the shortages – other working households are struggling to get out of rented accommodation and onto the property ladder.

The SHU say it’s looking at legal changes to create a shared ownership scheme to keep properties in the affordable housing sector for future generations of first-time buyers and the panel wants to see the Housing Minister bringing those changes to property legislation to the States for approval by the end of the year.

The panel also recommends that the Housing Minister should by next January investigate making it more expensive for people to keep an empty house in Jersey and look at introducing an extra tax that they'd have to pay on top of the parish rates.