Minister acknowledges “historic underinvestment” in public buildings

Jersey’s Infrastructure Minister has admitted that the island’s multi-billion property portfolio has suffered from “historic underinvestment” and “fragmented management” after a critical watchdog review – but says that things are improving.

Constable Andy Jehan made the comments following publication of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s latest report, which found that investment in maintenance of the multi-billion-pound portfolio in recent years “has been at levels below recommended benchmarks”.

Lynn Pamment also noted that a condition survey completed in 2023 categorised as many as one-in-four properties as “fair or poor”, and described the Government’s approach to managing it as “fragmented”.

In a statement, the Infrastructure Minister described the C&AG’s findings as “a timely and valuable contribution to our ongoing efforts to modernise the management of the island’s property estate”.

“There is no doubt that historic underinvestment, combined with fragmented management responsibility, has created longstanding challenges in how the public estate is maintained, utilised, and governed,” he added.

But Constable Jehan also stated that “progress has been made”.

“Notably through the creation of the Island Public Estate Strategy, the recent completion of a full condition survey, and the agreement of SLAs [Service Level Agreements] with all States schools,” the Minister continued.

“But the report rightly identifies that implementation needs to accelerate and be consistently embedded across all departments.”

Constable Jehan added that a strengthening of Jersey Property Holdings’ ability to achieve “strategic alignment across departments and arm’s-length bodies” was needed to achieve better value for money, improved public assets and ensure the estate “is fit for purpose for the long term”.

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