‘Islanders need to find the right-sized homes’

Part of the intent of the States Strategic Housing Indicator, which has outlined that the island needs to build more than 300 homes every year for the next five years to meet the need, is to enable islanders to find the right-sized home for them, said Environment & Infrastructure president Lindsay de Sausmarez.

Deputy de Sausmarez told members that the figures showed that 55% of homes in the private sector had at least one room more than was needed by the occupiers.

While insisting that she had no intention of compelling – or even persuading – anybody to downsize, she argued there was a minority who wanted to ‘right-size’, but were prevented by a short supply of certain types of home.

The States had a responsibility to consider the needs of the community, she said, regardless of concerns over interference in the market. The report identified the private housing market as requiring 62 one-bedroom properties, 716 with two bedrooms, 53 with three and 13 with four or more, over the next five years.

The States approved the report and the recommendation by 24 votes to 10. Not every deputy was convinced by all the arguments presented.

Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen questioned the purpose of the report, asking ‘what’s the problem?’ in relation to the so-called housing crisis.

‘Twas ever thus,’ she said. ‘We’ve always had this problem, to a degree.’

Others, such as Deputies Dave Mahoney and Chris Le Tissier, went further, with the former saying the housing market would ‘sort itself out’ without interference, and the latter decrying the ‘big government’ nature of the proposals.

There was a consensus among most members that the identified need – equivalent to a newly-built home almost every day for five years – could not and would not be met. However, it was welcomed by some as an information tool.

‘There is indeed a housing crisis and this policy letter helps us to understand the nature of it,’ E&I member Deputy Simon Fairclough said.

The newly-adopted aspiration, if met, would generate 844 private homes, 473 social rental properties and 248 partial ownership properties by 2027. The anticipated need is partly based on a net migration target of 300-plus, which the Assembly agreed last year.

Deputy de Sausmarez accepted that the identification of the need was not, in itself, a solution, and was keen to stress that it was not to be viewed as a ‘target’.

Members of the Development & Planning Authority confirmed that the report was an important tool for planners considering applications for development.