GP11 affordable housing policy to be scrapped

Concerns were raised by senior law officers that zero-rating GP11 may be difficult to achieve

A Guernsey planning policy that requires a portion of housing developments to be affordable or social housing will be suspended for five years.

Development and Planning Authority President Victoria Oliver said she hoped the move would lead to developers "getting on" with housebuilding.

Proposals to suspend it for two years from Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez were defeated.

Employment and Social Security President Peter Roffey warned the suspension would mean the burden of affordable house building would fall solely on the States.

Concerns were raised by the His Majesty's Comptroller Robert Titterington that actually making the change to the Island Development Plan may be difficult.

Something Development and Planning Authority (DPA) President Andy Taylor agreed may be an issue.

Mr Taylor said: "The burden of building affordable housing will ultimately fall on the taxpayer.

"We are already strapped for cash if we need to find more money for affordable housing where will it come from?"

Deputy Taylor was one of a handful of States members who did not vote to suspend GP11

Chief Minister Lyndon Trott led the proposal to suspend GP11 and said this was the States listening to developers as they had complained the policy had stopped private housebuilding.

"We are saying we have heard you, we have responded accordingly, now show us what you have been telling us is true. I hope we will see a considerable increase in development.

"At the end of the day, this is the number one domestic objective of this States, and what we are seeing is a States that is listening and doing its very best to facilitate improvement in Guernsey's housing stock."

In the States, Deputy Trott said the assembly would be watching developers with a keen eye in the next few months.

DPA President Victoria Oliver said she hoped this would lead to a lot of planning applications and "spades in the ground" for new houses.

What is 'affordable housing'

According to the States of Guernsey "affordable housing" is property reserved for certain groups of people "who can't afford to rent or buy property on the private market".

The States categorises it as:

• States housing

• Partial ownership properties

• Extra care housing

Analysis by John Fernandez, BBC Guernsey political reporter

This is the States of Guernsey attempting to call the developers bluff.

Politicians have been told for years the blocker for house building recently has been GP11, so with it suspended the States hopes it will lead to a slew of homes being built.

It's a "win, win" according to many deputies I've spoken to, if houses are built it goes to solve the island's housing crisis, if not then it shows GP11 was not the blocker to housebuilding.

The caveat is that it means the affordable housing programme of the States will now solely need to be funded by taxpayers - something which those in charge of the scheme have warned is not fair.

But with hundreds of millions of pounds of new borrowing approved for housebuilding the chief minister believes this is not a massive issue.

The proof of whether this policy suspension has been a worthwhile gambit will ultimately be whether we see a swathe of new housing developments coming forward in the next few years.