Recent legislation will allow it to allocate an average of three new inscriptions a year, either to new developments or to one-for-one replacement dwellings.
The original idea was for the new inscriptions to be awarded on a ‘first come, first served’ basis but the committee was worried that this could be open to abuse. It pointed to the difficulty of determining, beyond doubt, which applications had actually been made first, particularly if they were submitted automatically. The committee said that such automated applications could be prone to abuse, as seen in the purchase of theatre tickets from online sites.
Instead, it is proposing to carry out a sort of ‘inscription lottery’ when the number of applications exceeds the number of inscriptions available.
The committee admitted that it had considered granting new open market status to those schemes providing the most social benefit to the island but was concerned that using subjective judgments in this way could leave it open to legal challenge.
However, it pointed out that it could do exactly that in respect of applications for open market status under the ‘exceptional circumstances’ clause of the law.
Housing said this was the section of the legislation that it would expect to be used if, for example, a developer was promising affordable housing provision in return for an open market inscription.
The committee said it did not yet know exactly how it would carry out such a ballot, or whether it would involve any independent oversight, but stressed that these were operational matters for the committee to determine.
The idea is due to go before the States for approval this month.