Can we put a price on GP11?
FOR a planning policy which, it is claimed, has not facilitated the construction of a single affordable home, there have been hundreds of column inches dedicated to the controversial GP11.
The policy is currently under review, and it appears that developers are telling the Development & Planning Authority that, rather than cede land to it for affordable homes, they’d prefer to give some money direct to the GHA instead.
Doesn’t do much for the property mix on developments, though one can see how such a mix might jar in certain circumstances.
But after a prolonged period of developers trying every which way – and largely succeeding – to extricate themselves from the demands of GP11 to give up areas of land, what is the guarantee now that these financial contribution will be readily agreed?
The demands of the policy, and the DPA’s perhaps understandable and pragmatic reluctance to hold developers to it, have weakened it almost to the point of redundancy.
Part of the appeal of GP11 would have been a much wider mix of sites, and a much quicker route to completion.
A cash contribution would certainly carry some value for the Guernsey Housing Association, but almost certainly not as much, as it has known from the times when it has struggled to find its own sites to develop.