The President of Scrutiny has raised concerns that the States did not make a proper business case when it decided to buy Leale’s Yard – something denied by officials.

Deputy Andy Sloan, who heads up Scrutiny, used the committee’s first hearing with Policy & Resources and the States Property Unit this week to ask if it had made the decision to buy the site without fully understanding the scale of ongoing costs.

Officials insisted analysis was conducted at a “high level” but were unable to produce a business case or any figures related to it at the hearing earlier this week.

Deputy Sloan expressed surprise at this and said he was concerned the decisions were made without the “necessary thinking” around “value for money for taxpayers”. 

The States bought the majority of Leale’s Yard for £4.5m this summer after a public-private partnership with developer Omnibus Investment Holdings Ltd collapsed in April.

Officials said other options were considered immediately after this deal fell through, and included taking the land into public ownership which was actioned by the previous political board of P&R.

The now P&R President, Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, said the previous committee “would have considered the missed opportunity cost of not” doing anything with the site which she labelled an “albatross around the neck” of the government.

She said it presents a unique opportunity for the States to regenerate the Bridge with wider infrastructure such as flood defences, and rejected suggestions from Deputy Sloan that the public sector would go it alone developing Leale’s Yard.

Deputy Sloan also asked if large public sites are “being left to ruin”, citing a lack of progress on the former Castel Hospital and King Edward VII sites. 

Work is progressing to build a bed-based care home facility on the KEVII, while Castel Hospital looks set to be rezoned under the Island Development Plan which will allow the construction of homes. 

Mark Ogier, Director of Estates, rejected the perception that the States “has a huge amount of empty sites”, saying in both cases there are still staff operating from those premises including medical equipment maintenance.

He said he “can’t just move people if there is no capital allocated for me to do that”.