A housing committee could return to speed up delivery

The group is being led by Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller and includes Deputies Peter Ferbrache, Marc Leadbeater, David Mahoney, Nick Moakes, Carl Meerveld and Victoria Oliver.

They launched a requete to establish a new principal committee from the next political term that will have more decision-making powers on housing, as well as resources to drive its mandate.

It is proposed the new committee would seek to amalgamate the different mandates on housing currently split between Employment & Social Security, Environment & Infrastructure and Policy & Resources, and expand them further to include industry capacity and financing, as well as policy areas under the Guernsey Housing Plan.

Deputy Kazantseva-Miller said that a ‘step-change’ was needed in the island’s approach to housing if the States Strategic Housing Indicator – approved by States members last year – was to be taken seriously.

‘The indicator showed us that we need 1,500 new homes between 2023 and 2027, or about 313 per year. Last year less than a third of that indicator was built,’ she said.

‘At the current rate of home building, we have little to no chance to meet that indicator by 2027.’

She said the existence of rules within the States’ Rules of Procedure which enable the States to create or dissolve committees by resolution demonstrated that previous States Assemblies thought it prudent to have the flexibility to create or dissolve committees in order to meet the challenges and demands of the times.

‘We must be nimble and responsive and seek to organise and resource ourselves to best deliver in times of need,’ she said.

‘I feel strongly that we cannot simply continue with doing more of what we’ve done because the rate and pace indicates that we will not get there.’

She added that she had received ‘overwhelming’ support for the requete, having engaged with external stakeholders and other deputies over the past few months, and this had pushed her forward to work with the requete’s other signatories and finalise the proposals.

The requete includes a resolution to review the committee by the end of the eight-year period before the 2033 general election, which Deputy Kazantseva-Miller said was an important mechanism to ensure the committee did not become complacent.

‘I think we will need at least two political terms to work through the complexity and the backlog of housing issues and to complete a decent housebuilding program that meets the indicator,’ she said.

‘After that it’s hard to tell what will be needed and a planned review would be a way to determine what follows, including whether the committee had done its job and could be dissolved.’

Deputy Ferbrache said he had no reservations supporting the requete.

‘I have been very close to the States’ efforts on housing this political term as a member of Policy & Resources and the Housing Action Group and have personally tried to push matters such as amending the infamous GP11 policy. Housing remains the number one priority for government and the issues will not go away.’

Guernsey’s government is now structured into one senior committee – P&R – and six principal committees. But prior to 2016, housing had its own department, with the late Dave Jones as the last minister.