Guernsey’s housing president has acknowledged that his committee’s ambitious plan to tackle the island’s housing shortage will not solve the crisis on its own, while reopening questions about controversial support payments for incoming key workers.
Deputy Steve Williams said the committee’s newly-published housing workplan was designed to prioritise one thing above all else: building more homes.
He told Express: “We’re basically short of homes – demand exceeds supply quite significantly.
“That’s led to people not being able to find them, or they’re very unaffordable.
“Rents going up and values going up significantly over the last few years.”
The committee’s strategy is heavily focused on increasing housing supply through new developments, affordable housing projects and bringing forward sites identified through the ongoing Island Development Plan review.
But Deputy Williams admitted that even if every proposal in the plan was successfully delivered, it would not fully solve Guernsey’s housing challenges.
Asked whether the workplan would ultimately get the island to the right level of housing, he told Express: “It’s a good question. I think it gets us part of the way. I don’t think it will solve it.”
Instead, Deputy Williams pointed to wider issues outside his committee’s remit, including population management and migration.
“It doesn’t matter how many homes you build if you’ve still got a flood of people coming in for jobs,” he said.
“We’ve got the balance with the economy, the health service and housing, the infrastructure of the island, and how much can we develop?”
Subsidy concerns resurface
Deputy Williams also suggested it may be time to revisit a long-running debate over States support for key workers moving to the island.
Under the States’ rules, some relocating workers can receive longer-term rental support to help employers recruit staff.
The housing president previously raised concerns that those subsidies risked distorting the rental market. While the issue does not fall directly within Housing’s remit, he said it remained a topic that needed further discussion.
“It is a hot topic,” he said.
“I was going to raise with them in conversation about bringing back down from the four-year to the two-year rental-outs period.”
Deputy Williams said the number of subsidised key workers in private rented accommodation was relatively small compared with the wider rental market.
“When you actually drill into the numbers, there aren’t that many key workers actually placed in private rented accommodation,” he said.
“I think it was less than 100 houses.”
By comparison, he estimated Guernsey has around 7,000 private rented properties.
However, he acknowledged the policy’s impact may extend beyond the numbers involved.
“I think it’s being used by some landlords as an excuse,” he said.
“It’s actually being used more as a myth and possibly an excuse from various people’s point of view.
“But even so, it’s a perception, and it doesn’t help the market.”
Making better use of existing homes
While much of the housing plan focuses on construction, Deputy Williams said the island also needs to make better use of its existing housing stock.
He pointed to office conversions, downsizing initiatives and tax relief for people renting out spare rooms.
“We’ve got to try and make the maximum use of the stock we’ve already got,” he said.
Deputy Williams said more commercial buildings were being converted into homes and argued that the States needed to do more to promote its rent-a-room tax relief scheme.
He suggested many homeowners could be encouraged to take in lodgers if they were made more aware of the incentives and given greater support.
“We need to do a bit more promo on that,” he said.
The committee is also preparing proposals aimed at clarifying the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants.
Deputy Williams said the current system leaves both sides relying on the Royal Court to resolve disputes, making conflicts expensive and time-consuming.
“We’re trying to get some sort of balance on supporting landlords and tenants,” he said.
Learning from Covid
Deputy Williams argued that Guernsey’s housing shortage was worsened because the island entered the pandemic without a pipeline of projects ready to go.
Building activity had slowed during a weaker housing market before Covid, only for demand to surge when islanders living elsewhere returned home.
“We got caught out with the pandemic,” he said.
“We just weren’t able to react because we didn’t have a pipeline of stuff ready that we could just turn on.”
“It is a very long process securing land, getting the planning, getting it built.”
He said one of the key aims of the current workplan was to create a development programme that could be accelerated or slowed depending on market conditions.
What does the housing plan say?
The Committee for Housing’s workplan sets out a goal of ensuring islanders have access to housing that is affordable, secure and appropriate to their needs.
Its headline ambitions include:
- Having 250-300 affordable homes completed or under active construction by the end of this political term.
- Creating a pipeline of up to 484-618 affordable homes by 2030.
- Developing new States-led housing projects alongside those delivered by the Guernsey Housing Association.
- Working with developers to unblock stalled housing sites and potentially introducing penalties for undeveloped land.
- Introducing landlord registration and a future licensing scheme for houses in multiple occupation.
- Producing a homelessness delivery plan and expanding emergency accommodation options.
- Exploring ways to help first-time buyers save for deposits and reduce the cost of purchasing homes.
The committee estimates Guernsey needs around 300 additional homes each year, compared with an average of just 106 delivered annually over the last decade.
For Deputy Williams, the priority is clear.
“We’re trying to get a programme going here of homes,” he said.
“But everything else we’re working on is a multitude of smaller things to try and make an impact.”
