Key worker accommodation costs nearly £3m. a year

This equates to about £1,000 a month in rent for each bed.

HSC president Al Brouard said some of those costs would be covered by the staff themselves, with HSC topping that up, but he could not give a breakdown of how much HSC paid exclusively.

P&R provided the information in response to written questions from Deputy Chris Le Tissier.

He said he had originally asked the same questions of HSC direct, but was referred to P&R since it is responsible for States’ properties.

He had asked for full details of all the properties owned, leased, rented or used to accommodate key worker staff for HSC, along with the various jobs held by those who lived in them and the date of the expiry of any leases or rental agreements.

However, the response to his request for these details was declined after States’ presiding officer, the Bailiff, had ruled that on the grounds of public interest, the question need not to be answered.

But he was given a general breakdown of the types of accommodation used, which included 30 flats and 32 maisonettes and six block bookings of hotel rooms.

The majority of beds were in hotels, 107, while there were 61 in flats and 46 in maisonettes. A total of 245 beds were occupied by staff at a total cost of £2.93m. a year.

‘It should be noted that depending on the lease terms charges such as utilities, parish rates, insurance and the like may be included in the above figures,’ said P&R in its response.

Deputy Le Tissier said that while he was disappointed not to get all of his questions answered, he was happy to have the information that was provided.

‘P&R didn’t want to answer [every question] because it was commercially sensitive,’ he said.

‘I did have a conversation with them saying that I didn’t want people’s names and addresses, just high level stuff. They misunderstood the level of detail I was after.’