07 Housing

2025 Members of the Housing Committee

President: Steve Williams 6950
Vice President: Sasha Kazantseva-Miller 8794
Members: David Dorrity 5644, Gary Collins 5876, Rhona Humphries 5630

New Members of the Development & Planning Authority

President: Neil Inder 5651
Vice President: Marc Laine 7556
Members: Sarah Hansmann-Rouxel 5458, Lee Van Katwyk 7063, Steve Williams 6950

it is a huge step in the right direction

The Assembly finally managed to end a Requete debate (brought in December last year) to create a standalone Housing Committee in the first meeting of 2025. The intention is to bring all of the diverse responsibilities spread across (principally) 3 committees, under one mandate. It was vigorously opposed by some of the members on those committees and it made for a lively debate – especially as it neared its close. But this is a great step towards removing the ‘friction’ that having multiple committees involved can create unnecessarily – and add to delays in decision-making.

Housing has been stated time and again as this Assembly’s most important priority and yet we have hardly built any new homes this term. To be fair, that is not altogether for want of trying. We have had a variety of cross-committee groups; have purchased an extensive amount of land; removed the much talked-about GP11; had industry forums, consultants and surveys – and still have 28 pieces of specific policy yet to materialise at the time of writing.

As something of a rearguard action, when confronted with the Requete, the E&I Committee decided we should avoid creating such a super-committee and go instead for a new Commission. But we have already got pretty much the same industry people already working very well together on a new Housing forum and establishing another look-a-like entity just did not gain enough traction.

As can be seen from my proposals for recalibrated committee mandates here, this is exactly what I myself wanted to see happen as part of the next Machinery of Government review – and although my preference is for the DPA (Planning Authority) to be absorbed into this new Committee – it is a huge step in the right direction in the interim.

The authority to create this new Committee lies with P&R (my Committee), and we are under direction to have achieved the necessary re-organisation in time for the incoming new Assembly in June. It will present a few challenges, but if you too think that Housing is the key concern for Islanders – then perhaps you might want to consider standing and putting yourself up as a member in June. But be aware, whilst this should streamline the political and practical processes surrounding all of the States’ responsibilities for Housing – it does not change the financial climate – or the shortage of skilled labour which is certainly playing a big part in why houses are just not getting built.

In last year’s budget, it was agreed that we would build two temporary ‘villages’ – one for the use of building contractors (to house temporary staff to assist with the shortage of Labour) – and one for ‘key workers’ (local and non-local) which would be to a somewhat better specification. Once it has been decided where they will be sited (they will need access to utilities such as electricity, mains water etc), we can import these ‘modular’ homes, as they come pretty much already kitted out, ready for use.

Meanwhile, a great deal of work is being done by the DPA to rework the existing Island Development Plan (IDP), which will have a strong focus on designating new areas for future housing. This is unfortunately unlikely to come back for consideration until the new Assembly are in place – Planning Law changes have a mandatory, quite extensive consultation process to undertake before changes can be brought into being. A further area that is being considered as a consequence, is whether or not more flexibility in planning laws can accompany this – since Planning Law is the one area in which the Sovereignty of the Assembly is less clear cut.

So, whilst the entire Assembly is dissatisfied that more has not been achieved this term – the new Assembly will be in a much stronger position to actually make things happen – but as previously mentioned, with the cost of borrowing so high it is acting as a barrier both to Developers and those seeking extremely expensive mortgages – with no current indication that it will abate anytime soon. Nevertheless, this is a welcome step in the right direction.

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