Family embarrassed at condition of States housing

Kayleigh Steer said she feels awful her children have to live in a property that "leaks, has poor insulation and issues with mould and algae"

There are calls to improve the quality of States housing from residents, who have described the contitions they live in as "horrible".

A number of tenants contacted the BBC with concerns following a story about a lack of maintenance of properties in Guernsey.

Kayleigh Steer was one of them and said she feels awful her children have to live in a property that "leaks, has poor insulation and issues with mould and algae".

Employment and Social Security (ESS) President Peter Roffey said he could not comment on individual cases, but he was "not proud" of the situation and admitted there was little he could do without more funding from the States.

Deputies rejected a request for a £670,000 uplift to the 2025 budget for States house maintenance which means ESS will receive about £7m to cover the maintenance of social housing next year.

'Wallpaper peeling off'

Before living in the property in St Saviours, Ms Steer said the previous owner kept pigeons in the house which caused damage to the stairs.

Ms Steer said when she first moved in the hallway was flooded because of a problem with the door and since then issues with the quality of the property have continued.

In the main bathroom of the four bed property, the roof and windowsill is covered in mould and algae which Ms Steer blamed on the quality of the building, lack of insulation and a leak in the bathroom which has not been fixed by the States.

"Our extractor fan leaks when it rains, I have a leak from my bathroom which is impacting the ceiling," she said.

"The salt is coming through the wall and the wallpaper is peeling off, and I'm told there is nothing they can do, without moving out."

Ms Steer's daughter said the state of the bathroom meant she did not like having guests around

She said despite calls to the States to sort the problems out there were still a number of issues impacting her and her children.

"Jobs get left half done. I keep saying to them, you wouldn't live like this," Ms Steer said.

"You wouldn't allow your family to live like this, so why as I'm in a States house is it OK?"

Her daughter, Amelia, said: "It is horrible and embarrassing when our friends come around, it's not because we are in a States house, it's the state of our house.

"It's embarrassing for us as kids, and for our mum, we can't let people use the upstairs bathroom as it's genuinely embarrassing."

Deputy Kazantseva-Miller is one of seven politicians behind a move to create a new committee

The criticism comes as proposals to create a new committee for housing are set to be debated this week.

This new body, if proposals from Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller are approved, would oversee the island's affordable housing programme, social housing and the Guernsey housing plan.

She said: "Housing has been the number one priority but we have failed to increase the rate of homebuilding and it has been the key economic barrier, we need to laser focus on building new homes, instead of dealing with four or five committees.

"It will bring the scrutiny and the clear mandate and accountability."

Roffey is opposed to the move to create a new committee and said it will not lead to any extra resources for the committee.

But Kazantseva-Miller disagreed.

"It is misleading that we won't have more resources," she said.

"We will have non-States members and it will make things happen, instead of lots of high-level plans, and we will create a delivery plan for building 1500 homes Guernsey so desperately needs."