Chamber – IDP fails to address how housing can be delivered
A LACK of control by the States over allocated affordable housing development sites is worrying, Guernsey’s Chamber of Commerce members have said.
The body submitted some of the 270 responses to the Island Development Plan review, which were published on Wednesday.
Chamber hosted a briefing session on the proposed changes to the Island Development Plan with its members.
It then submitted a series of responses, one of which detailed that some of the sites allocated for affordable housing were not owned by the States and the government had not come to a commercial agreement over them.
‘There is concern that all these sites need to be successfully delivered to meet demand and therefore they will not be able to be secured for a fair market rate,’ said Chamber executive director Alice Gill, who submitted the response on behalf of the industry group.
Having certain sites used solely for affordable housing was another point raised by Chamber in its responses.
There are six sites allocated for affordable housing under the review, but the States is also moving forward with the Guernsey Housing Association to build large new affordable housing developments on a number of glasshouse sites.
Chamber said that this could create social and economic imbalances within the community.
‘The strategy of utilising existing sites acquired by the States solely for affordable housing poses a risk of creating mono-tenure developments,’ said Ms Gill.
‘A preference for mixed-tenure developments should be reflected in the IDP to promote balanced and sustainable communities.
‘A further call for sites is required, to identify priority mixed-tenure developments that are not only consistent with the current IDP, but are also deliverable in the next five years.’
On the topic of affordable housing, Chamber’s executive board commented on the use of greenfield sites as suggested in the updated plans.
‘We do not support that all new affordable housing allocations are on greenfield sites and would like to see brownfield sites being prioritised,’ said Ms Gill.
‘The extent of the challenges in relation to the supply of housing on the island, whether affordable or private, are too significant and systematic to be adequately addressed either by the specific proposals, or within the framework of this focused review.’
Chamber’s responses also showed concerns among members about the delivery of plans for private housing.
‘The island is already behind on delivery for private housing and are unable to meet the predicted level of delivery outlined in the plans,’ said Ms Gill.
‘It identifies the required supply of land for the island’s private housing needs without assessing the commercial deliverability of that supply within the time frame, nor identifying adequate contingencies to help reach the target.’
