Guernsey looks to Jersey for affordable housing lessons

Guernsey politicians are turning to Jersey’s largest affordable housing provider for advice as they seek to tackle the island’s own housing crisis and deliver more homes.

Guernsey’s Committee for Housing met with senior representatives from Andium Homes this week to learn from Jersey’s experience of delivering affordable housing at scale. 

The visit saw Andium chief executive Lindsay Wood, chief financial officer Peter Styles and chief operations officer Carl Mavity travel to Guernsey to discuss how the organisation has tackled housing affordability and overcome development challenges since its creation in 2014. 

The exchange comes as both islands continue to grapple with housing shortages, affordability pressures and growing demand for new homes.

Committee for Housing President Deputy Steve Williams said Jersey and Guernsey faced many of the same issues.

“We were delighted to welcome Andium Homes to Guernsey to discuss the common issues faced by both islands as we work to address housing supply and affordability,” he said.

“Jersey and Guernsey share many of the same challenges when it comes to housing supply and affordability and we were very grateful for the opportunity to discuss that in detail with the team at Andium.” 

Why Andium?

Andium Homes is wholly owned by the Government of Jersey and has overseen the delivery of more than 1,000 homes since it was established. Today, it manages more than 5,100 properties and provides housing for over 10,000 Islanders. 

The not-for-profit organisation says 2025 was its most successful year to date, helping 154 Islanders into home ownership through its HomeBuy scheme, delivering 363 new homes and providing 583 new tenancies. 

Its property portfolio is valued at approximately £1.4 billion. The social housing provider spent £97 million on capital projects last year, alongside a further £18.1 million invested in maintaining and improving existing homes. 

Andium rental income reached £70 million, while £28.7 million was returned to the Government of Jersey.

Opportunities for closer working?

Andium chief executive Lindsay Wood said the two islands had much to learn from one another.

“Whilst our islands have their own unique identities, we also share many challenges and opportunities, giving us plenty to learn from one another,” she said.

“We look forward to continuing discussions and identifying opportunities to work together.” 

Guernsey’s Housing Vice-President, Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, suggested the discussions could be the start of closer collaboration between the islands.

“We are always looking for ways of working more closely with Jersey and we were impressed to see how much Andium has achieved since its incorporation,” she said.

“We will keep the dialogue and exchange of information going and explore opportunities for joint working as we look to deliver significant numbers of homes to meet our island’s needs.” 

READ NEXT…

The discussions come amid a broader debate about how much Jersey and Guernsey can learn from one another – and why some attempts at inter-island cooperation have succeeded while others have fallen flat...