The next States is facing calls to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to tackle the island’s greatest housing crisis for 80 years.
And the newly-created Housing Committee is being warned that Guernsey will fall into irreversible decline unless it adopts the kind of radical action which got the island back on its feet after the two world wars.
Writing in today’s Guernsey Press, former deputy Andrew Le Lievre said the new Assembly would need the same foresight and courage as its predecessors of 1918 and 1945.
‘Housing committees in all their forms have faced only three true crises – one after each of the world wars, and today,’ he said.
‘The difference is eye-watering between the price of housing and what it needs to be to provide our young people with reasons to remain.
‘Building sufficient homes will cost hundreds of millions of pounds over the course of a decade or more.
‘We can do this. It has been achieved twice before and we can do it again.’
Mr Le Lievre, one of the island’s most experienced voices on social welfare issues, is bidding to return to the States at next month’s general election.
If elected, he will try to win a seat on the new Housing Committee which is being set up on 1 July.
The States yesterday rejected claims from some politicians that the set up costs of the new committee would exceed a budget of £200,000 agreed earlier this year.
‘At this time, we expect to be able to establish the new committee’s office within the cost envelope agreed via the requete for this year,’ said a spokesman.
It is currently recruiting a committee secretary and executive support officer for the committee.
Mr Le Lievre said the new committee would be unable to resolve the housing crisis without the support of the whole island.
‘As an island, we must support our deputies who will be trying to resolve this challenge, not hold marches against them,’ he said.
‘This responsibility is shared by all of us who care about our island’s future, and if we fail it we will all be to blame for the dreadful outcomes which lie in wait for us.’
A new home at Sandy Hook was unveiled yesterday which will accommodate 14 people with disabilities when it opens this summer.
But the States and Guernsey Housing Association have faced criticism for building only one new unit of social housing since the start of 2023, at a time when private housebuilding has been about half the rate needed.
Read more in Thursday’s Press.
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.