States’ housing tenants won’t have to put down their own floor coverings when they move into their new home in the future.
Currently all tenants have to provide their own carpets or other flooring on moving in, and they must be removed when the property changes hands.
That practice is now expected to end next year said the States today.
The Committee for Employment and Social Security had been working on this but has now handed the plans over to the new Committee for Housing.
Housing President, Deputy Steve Williams said he’ll be pleased to sign off that work over the coming months.
“I know that Deputy Bury and the previous Members of her Committee felt very strongly that it was no longer acceptable to expect tenants to move in to properties without floor coverings and be expected to take out loans or rely on family or charitable support, and so I’m delighted that my Committee can oversee the next stage of this important policy development.”
Deputy Tina Bury, President of the Committee for Employment & Social Security, agreed that this is good news for tenants.
“This is an area the previous Committee agreed needed resolving, so I am really pleased to see the new Committee for Housing putting a solution in place. Private renters and Guernsey Housing Association tenants are generally not expected to provide their own floor coverings when moving into a new property, so this levels the playing field and brings the States in line with standard practice as a modern landlord.”
The Housing Committee is now looking for prices from potential suppliers. They can register on the States Procurement Portal to find out more.
It’s not been stated where the money to fund the floor coverings will come from, but it’s likely to be paid for from the budget allocated to the new Housing Committee.
It was created to take on full responsibility for housing across the States, which had previously been divided between Policy and Resources, Health and Social Care, and ESS.
Previously, ESS had asked for the States for an additional £670,000 as part of the 2025 Budget to cover more building maintenance services across the States social housing estate that it managed.
At the time it was said this would include providing floor coverings for people moving in to social housing.
The then ESS President, Deputy Peter Roffey told the States in November 2024 that some of that additional money would be focused on ensuring that people who move in to social housing would have floor coverings.
He explained how States housing tenants still move in to properties with bare floors and he wanted to change that. However, his committee officers urged caution in doing anything about that before any additional money was secured to pay for carpets or other floor coverings in the long term.
The current rules around removing carpets and other floor coverings when a States property is vacated is similar to that in Jersey and the UK.
In Jersey, Andium Homes announced in 2023 that tenants would be provided grants – as opposed to loans – to pay for carpets in new rentals.
At the time it was estimated that 114 Andium tenants were repaying loans for the provision of carpets.
By the end of 2023, 70 tenants had been issued with grants to put down flooring in their homes instead of having to take out a loan.
In the UK, rules around carpets and flooring varies between different councils.
Some still dictate that people moving out of social housing must remove floor coverings, and new tenants must put down their own, while others have changed these rules.
Councils are obliged to ensure all properties meet the health and safety regulations including any potential hazards concerning floor coverings or a lack of any inside the home. If, for example, a floor covering is damaged and dangerous then the council may be legally required to replace it.