Guernsey Press

'We worry over drug costs while housing licences waste millions'

Mike Hadley. (0559990) HOUSING licence policies are wasting more than £10m., a Health and Social Services board member has claimed.

Published

HOUSING licence policies are wasting more than £10m., a Health and Social Services board member has claimed.

Deputy Mike Hadley will at the weekend meet like-minded deputies to discuss what moves can be made to change the Housing Department's stance and have more 15-year licences issued.

He has published a newsletter outlining his position and other issues. It is being mailed to all residents in the South-east district, which he represents.

'I don't want to see a massive increase in population, but the current policy of issuing five-year licences as opposed to 15 is awful,' said Deputy Hadley.

Deputy Hadley said that Health was having to make decisions about whether to spend money on new drugs to save people's lives when millions were being frittered away because of housing licence policies.

'I'm having a chat this weekend with other deputies who agree with my point of view to see if we can take the matter forward.

'I will be asking questions about getting confirmation of the costs in the States. I've guessed at £10m. I think it's a fairly intelligent guess.'

A requete could be one approach to changing the system.

'The problem with the States is a lot of people, because they have been in the island generations, want to stop newcomers coming in,' he said.

'There are so many things wrong with that policy. Considering we have a population of around 60,000, we need new blood coming in.

'If we totally ring-fenced the population of this island, the genetic pool would become really quite grim and there would be no interchange of ideas.'

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