Request for £430,000 to support housing plan

Guernsey is described as having "significant housing pressures"

The Committee for Environment and Infrastructure (E&I) has asked the States for an extra £430,000 to fund work on its housing plan.

E&I President Lindsay de Sausmarez has requested the money for next year's budget to recruit six new civil servants to work on the project.

The proposal will be discussed during a debate on plans to create a new committee for housing, which are set to be looked at next week.

Guernsey States' most senior committee, Policy and Resources, has asked for debate on setting up a committee for housing to be delayed until December.

In its proposals, E&I has argued that, in creating a committee for housing, the same level of staffing working on housing would be retained, so "housing priorities cannot be delivered any faster than the current timeline".

The committee argued: "This amendment will enable the accelerated delivery of the States’ housing objectives, because, if successful, it will increase the dedicated policy officer resource and therefore increase the States’ capacity to deliver the work."

E&I President Lindsay de Sausmarez said a new housing committee "doesn't help".

"If we need more resources to get the work done faster then there is nothing about creating a new committee that actually delivers those resources," she said.

She said it would create additional work, costs and created "a number of complications in terms of existing mandates".

A recent update to the Guernsey Housing Plan described the island as having "significant housing pressures".