THE absence of a social housing exchange scheme could lead to Jersey “sleepwalking into a form of social cleansing” by forcing Islanders to leave the communities that they have grown up in, the co-leader of Reform Jersey has warned.
Speaking in the States Assembly, Deputy Montfort Tadier suggested that people reliant on the Affordable Housing Gateway scheme are increasingly presented with a lack of choice as to the specific area of their future rental property.
His comments followed on from a question asked by his Reform Jersey colleague Deputy Lee Carpenter, who asked Housing Minister Malcolm Ferey whether he had considered reinstating a general home exchange scheme for Islanders seeking social housing.
Deputy Ferey had previously clarified that applicants who refuse an offer of accommodation “may be moved to a lower priority band or lose their priority within their current banding”.
He further said that Andium Homes “no longer” operates a home exchange scheme for applicants unhappy with their offer, save for “rare and exceptional circumstances”.
The minister, in his response to Deputy Carpenter during yesterday’s States question time, that the exchange scheme had “been found to be costly and impractical to administer”, before reiterating that he had “no plans” to review gateway priority rules.
In a supplementary question, Deputy Tadier argued that Islanders should not be forced to accept a choice of three properties that might be “in another part of the Island” to where they have set down roots.
He further stated that the issue was exacerbated by Andium Homes “selling off key social housing infrastructure” in certain parishes to first-time buyers and “not building or making any other rented accommodation available”.
“I hesitate to use this [term] but we could be sleepwalking into a form of social cleansing that is going on whereby the gentrification of one area comes at the cost of concentrating social housing in other areas,” he continued.
“And, we lose that balance that people have grown up in and we lose exactly that communal balance that makes Jersey a special place currently.”
The Housing Minister countered that first-time buyers who “might aspire to purchase a property” in their preferred area had benefited from the selling off of social housing stock.
“It’s two different parts of the market,” he said. “Of course, Andium in particular want to service both those parts of the market.
“It benefits one part of the community, and it is not necessarily over another part of the community, it is the way that Andium have developed their housing structure.”
In a previous answer, Deputy Ferey conceded that Islanders using the Affordable Housing Gateway “will like to continue to reside in the communities where they were brought up”.
“The fact is is the housing stock is precious, and housing needs vary by individual – so what we can do, is we can make sure that the property which is offered meets that housing need,” the minister added.
“What we are unable to do is promise that that property will be in a particular parish or in a particular district.
“And that’s purely because there is a certain amount of pressure on the gateway to make sure that it delivers.”
