New housing laws will 'afford individual greater protection'

One of the businessmen attending Thursday afternoon's specially-arranged meeting between sector heads, deputies and representatives of other States bodies said that 'local people will not be protected, but oppressed by new laws' and that local market regulation 'needed to be properly codified, as the open market has been'.

Housing Control director Esther Ingrouille said housing laws had not been rewritten apart from to offer individuals better protection and make the regulations 'more representative of modern society'.

'The Population Management Law was intended to give the States of Guernsey the mechanism to manage the size and make-up of the island's population,' she said.

'Just like its predecessor, the Housing Control Law, which has placed controls on who can live in Guernsey since 1948, it does this by defining who has an automatic right to live in Guernsey and who a person can accommodate in their household if those people don't have their own residency rights.

'All of this is to ensure that the island – the States of Guernsey and the community it serves – can place itself in the strongest possible position to provide a stable future. The new legislation has been though all due processes, including scrutiny from the UK Government.'

Ms Ingrouille said laws relating to immediate family members who have no residence rights of their own had not been tightened. Although siblings are not classed as 'immediate family' under housing laws, she said discretionary permission would be considered in certain circumstances.

'The only changes have been to modernise so that the make-up of family members is more representative of modern society,' she said. 'For example, under the new law, step-children have the same status as children born into the household.

'If a person wants to accommodate an adult sibling who has no residency rights, they can make an application to do just that – just as they can and would have to today. We would have to understand why their sibling wanted/needed to live in Guernsey.

'There would be absolutely nothing to stop the adult sibling finding a job that came with an employment permit and coming to live with their family member that way.

'If there was a need, for example, for a person to care for a sibling with special needs, or if the sibling was still a child, then of course that would be viewed sympathetically – just like it is today.'

Ms Ingrouille clarified that a 'spouse/partner' was defined as any relationship in which the people involved were living together.

'Of course, a person can always accommodate the person they are in a co-habiting relationship with,' she said.

'This applies to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. We also have a policy that makes it very clear that, for example, a parent can accommodate the partner of their adult child.'

An accusation that the States 'have given themselves more power to force entry into your home to monitor this new law' is unfounded and inaccurate, she said.

'The "power" referred to pretty much replicates what exists under the current Housing Control Law/Right to Work Law,' she said. 'The new law includes changes that actually afford the individual greater protection than under the old laws.'