To stimulate the building of much-needed private market housing, the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure is meeting with key landowners and developers in January to understand what can be done to ‘unlock’ these sites.
This is the latest practical step as part of the Guernsey Housing Plan to address Guernsey’s housing pressures, following work that started in the summer to develop a ‘toolbox’ of measures to stimulate much-needed housebuilding.
These meetings will be used to better understand what is preventing developments from progressing, so that government can consider how it can support developments which are currently deemed to be unviable.
This action follows detailed discussions about what’s currently stymying housebuilding with various stakeholders, including local developers, architects and the Guernsey Construction Forum.
Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, President of the Committee, said: “Historically, government intervention in the housing market has been minimal, but with so few developments coming forward – even though ample land has been zoned for housing, and there’s a healthy number of planning permissions in place – we need to take practical steps to address this lack of progress in the private housing market.
“Although some barriers will be common to all developments, each site will also have its own individual challenges. The meetings with landowners and developers will help us understand specifically what those challenges are and what could be done to address them.
“What this isn’t about, however, is government handouts. Given the current state of States finances, we obviously can’t guarantee that direct financial support will be available, but financial support from government can of course come in many different forms, such as help securing loans. There are various other ways, too, that the States may be able to unlock sites – for example through joint ventures, and the provision of infrastructure such as flood mitigation measures and improvements to the transport system. These conversations mean that government will know what measures would be most effective to stimulate some of these developments so that informed decisions can be made.
“This work is just one piece of a much larger plan to address the bigger picture of housing in Guernsey, which looks at a range of interrelated issues such as housing standards, the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants, energy efficiency and modern methods of construction, to name just a few. There is no quick fix. We can’t resolve Guernsey’s housing pressures at the flick of a switch, but this work adds to other practical steps which are already well underway.”
