'Suspending GP11 not magic bullet' - builder

Jeremy Rihoy has welcomed the decision to suspend GP11

The Director of Guernsey's biggest building company has warned suspending a planning policy will not mean an "immediate burst of housebuilding".

Jeremy Rihoy, director of JW Rihoys, said "this is not a magic bullet".

Deputies earlier this week voted to suspend GP11, a policy which requires a portion of developments to be given as affordable housing, for five years.

Developer Charles McHugh said he hoped this move would usher in a "new era" of housebuilding to solve the island's "housing emergency".

'More certainty'

Mr McHugh is currently working on a scheme to build about 330 homes at Leale's Yard which he said was not affected by GP11.

However he believes this move will help projects of a similar size to Leale's Yard to come forward.

"It's very important, as people will be thinking there is more certainty and less ambiguity," Mr McHugh said.

"We don't have to navigate this very bureaucratic policy which has basically been a failure since 2016, it hasn't delivered a house."

Mr Rihoy said deputies who said they wanted to see a lot of applications in the next few months should temper their expectations.

He pushed back on claims the suspension of this policy was a way of developers making more money on projects.

"What this was was the States using the wrong tool for the job," he said.

"Now if the States was to take some financial benefit from planning gain that could very probably work."

Deputy John Dyke who led the initial proposals to reform the island's planning system, with the goal of scrapping GP11, said the policy had been a "catastrophic failure".

"The private sector can press on to build housing for middle Guernsey free of the bureaucracy and costs involved with GP11," he said.

"We still have the hurdle of building costs in Guernsey but we have taken away the extra problems and costs associated with GP 11.

"We must now hope that the developers can now bring forward those large sites for affordable housing to buy that we so desperately need."