Builders identify five sites for 250 ‘truly affordable’ homes

The Guernsey Construction Forum has said that more land needs to be zoned for housing if the States wants to create more affordable homes.

Developer Paul Nobes, pictured, who leads the Forum's housing sub-committee, said the price of sites was closely linked to how many were available.

‘If you want cheaper houses, you have to zone more land,’ he said, ‘and at a rate of twice the allocation that’s required, and then leave the market to sort itself out.’

The forum said it had been working with the Development & Planning Authority and Environment & Infrastructure Committee on affordable housing schemes for more than two years.

‘We have indicated at least five sites that can deliver truly affordable housing for the island, with no over-paying for land and that can be delivered cost-effectively to provide up to 250 new affordable homes within the next four years,’ he said.

‘This is on top of the private homes currently under construction. Let’s wait and see if the industry is actually being listened to or whether individuals in the States think they know better. They either do not truly understand the principle, or have another agenda.’

Mr Nobes said that since the Island Development Plan was adopted in 2016, approvals had been granted for more than 2,000 homes but only 889 built.

‘There is a vast difference between approvals and actual homes.

'The States’ own figures clearly indicate the percentage of land that they need to zone to produce the number of homes that are required is over double their forecast.’

He said that the suspension of the GP11 planning policy, which required a defined percentage of large housing sites to be built as affordable, would help to speed building along.

‘We are aware of four or five schemes totalling 180 units now coming forward that would not have been viable with GP11 in place,’ Mr Nobes said.

‘This will obviously take time but anyone saying the removal of GP11 has not worked after only a few months does not understand property or how the construction industry works.’

He added that the number of new sites thought to be available was further confused when ownership and deliverability were factored in.

From the DPA figures in the latest quarterly monitoring report, you can see where that forward allocation is coming from.

‘You will see that sites for 319 homes are within a single group’s ownership and 336 are dependent on Leale’s Yard, that may never be developed as housing. This is nearly half the required allocation,’ he said. ‘It’s fair to say that the island’s housing needs cannot be reliant on these sites.’

He said the rest of the allocation was made up of affordable housing requiring government funding, much of which required flood defences.

The GCF said that the majority of the homes that have been constructed over the past eight years, since the adoption of the IDP, had been completed by the island’s smaller builders.

‘Our construction industry is incredibly adaptable and will muster to meet the island’s housing needs, but only if the States zones enough viable land to make this possible,’ Mr Nobes said.

‘My own company would gladly build 70 homes a year, but not if we have to over-pay for the sites due to lack of available land.’