States accused of working in silos on housing

Environment and Infrastructure published the first update to the housing plan earlier this month

The States has been accused of working in silos when it comes to housing by the President of Guernsey's Development and Planning Authority (DPA) Victoria Oliver.

In an e-mail to all States members, she said it was "load of silos working on different and sometimes the same thing, all going in different directions".

Deputy Oliver's e-mail reacted to the publication of an update to the Guernsey Housing Plan, which she said showed "this government does not work together".

Environment and Infrastructure (E&I) President Lindsay de Sausmarez responded that she believed the update had been "misinterpreted" by Deputy Oliver.

The Guernsey Housing Plan has been worked on by representatives of E&I, Policy and Resources (P&R) and Employment and Social Security (ESS).

In Mrs Oliver's e-mail to the island's deputies, she asked E&I not to release the update to the housing plan until the DPA had been spoken to.

However, it had already been published.

She also expressed frustration about the need to pause the review of the IDP "because of a number of representations which have significant changes from stakeholders, which called into question evidence previously gathered from them".

Earlier this month, a number of politicians warned the review of the island's planning policies was at risk of slipping into the next political term.

In her response to Mrs Oliver's e-mail, Mrs de Sausmarez wrote that this update to the housing plan would not interfere with the review of the Island Development plan (IDP).