The previous States spent nearly £16m. buying the sites, which between them are estimated to be capable of accommodating more than 650 homes, most probably with a mixture of social rental and private housing.
Progress has been slower than hoped for various reasons, including concerns about flooding, and homes are nowhere near construction anywhere on the land. But Steve Williams told the latest Guernsey Press Politics Podcast that he wanted to see visible signs of construction on all three sites by the end of the political term in 2029.
‘I hope that they are all cleared and we are getting up out of the ground,’ he said.
‘I am really keen that we crack on and people can actually see something happening and have some hope that we are getting on and doing something as a States. We’ve got a housing problem and we are sat on three large sites.’
Listen to the full interview with Deputy Williams on the latest Guernsey Press Politics Podcast
Deputy Williams said he would like to see some of the properties occupied in the next three and a half years but that would depend on every phase of development proceeding without major delays.
He believed the States should see it as an objective to have the construction of homes under way before handing the project to the next Assembly for completion.
‘That’s what I would like to see,’ he said. ‘At the end of it, we could say we’ve got something going here, it’s going to be good and it’s going to provide benefits.’
Kenilworth Vinery, since renamed Parc Le Lacheur, was the first of the three sites purchased by the States, in 2021, for £6.5m., with a view to it providing about 150 homes. The following year it spent £4.75m. buying the data park off Route Militaire, which is expected to accommodate nearly 200 homes. The largest site, Leale’s Yard, bought last year for £4.5m., already had an outline scheme for about 330 homes.
Savills was commissioned by the States last year to outline how the development of all three sites, and others in St Sampson’s also allocated for housing, could be undertaken as a single overarching project rather than separately.
Deputy Williams anticipated the States working with ‘a master developer’ to realise the whole single scheme, which would include commercial buildings, green spaces and new transport infrastructure, as well as housing.
‘We’ve got a cracking opportunity here to do something really good for the island. There are technical challenges with those sites, but they can be overcome,’ he said.
He believed the land in the south-east of the sites could be developed first.
‘If I was looking at it as a developer – and I’ve worked with a few over the years – you’re quicker out of the ground at the Route Militaire end. It’s lower-rise housing, it’s less complicated from a building point of view, and we can be getting some roads in and houses in and getting people occupied in them.
‘Leale’s Yard is more complicated because it’s higher density and is going to take longer to build.
‘But personally I’d like to see people working from both ends inwards. You might have workers in temporary accommodation in the middle.’