The DPA itself had identified seven new sites to allocate for affordable housing, property reserved for households that cannot afford to rent or buy on the private market without financial assistance or subsidy.
Planning inspector Keith Holland, in his final report to the DPA, suggested adding another six to that list, which would have meant a total of 13 additional areas which could accommodate new housing, the majority of which would have to have been for the States’ affordable housing development programme.
Paul Nobes of Infinity Construction said he would have liked to see all of those additional sites adopted by the DPA.
‘The trouble is that we know from experience that not all of the allocated sites will actually go forward,’ said Mr Nobes.
‘There can be all sorts of reasons why not, from getting landowners to agree terms among themselves to viability issues.
‘So what is really needed is an over-provision of land to ensure you still get sufficient new housing if some sites never progress.’
Stuart Leslie from Cherry Godfrey Property agreed with the approach of built-in over-provision, but said it was also necessary to ensure that more sites were ultimately developed.
‘We can release as many sites as we like, but unless there’s a mechanism to actually create the buildings that’s not really relevant,’ he said.
‘With regards to the idea that the States should start building again themselves, I am not really in favour of government getting involved again when they’ve purposefully moved away from that by creating the GHA. They’ve already identified that’s not within their skill set, so to go back and start trying to do it again, because they can see a gap in provision, doesn’t seem to me to be the right thing to do.’
Mr Leslie said he wanted to see the States giving the GHA the financial support needed to ensure that it could pursue more development without threatening its financial viability.
Both men are keen to ensure that the housing sites released under the focused IDP review also contain an element of private housing for sale to help with their viability, and to meet the ongoing and strong demand for private sector housing.
The sites being pursued by the DPA are scattered around the island, with two in outer St Peter Port, Forest and L’Islet and one for St Martin’s, Vazon and St Peter’s.
It is expected to take a report and recommendations for sites to be designated to the States before the end of the year.