Peter Le Maistre said there was a ‘balance’ between giving up land to meet the Island’s housing demands while ensuring farmers had access to the best-quality land to support food production.
As part of the draft bridging Island Plan it was revealed that 11 sites across seven parishes had been identified as potential locations for affordable homes – the majority of which are currently designated as agricultural fields. Four of the sites identified are deemed important to the agricultural industry and dairy farmers.
The sites form part of government proposals to build up to 1,500 new affordable homes over three years, in an effort to ‘address the Island’s housing needs and to help maintain sustainable communities’.
Mr Le Maistre said he would be visiting each site to assess its agricultural value and would be giving feedback to the relevant government ministers.
‘We as an industry understand that we are going to lose land for building. However, we want this land to be of the lowest agricultural value possible,’ he said.
‘There is a balance to be struck between supporting the Island’s housing crisis and ensuring our farmers have enough good-quality land to support food production.’
Mr Le Maistre said it was important that there was enough farming land in the Island.
‘If we don’t have enough land, then food production levels will be affected, and as we have seen in the past when supermarket shelves are empty as boats are docked due to bad weather, the Island relies on its local produce,’ he said.
Dairy farmer Andrew Le Gallais said the industry understood the problems Islanders faced with finding housing.
‘We never want to see land lost but we acknowledge the critical requirement for affordable housing to be built,’ he said.
‘In the past the agricultural industry has often said no when it comes to losing land but we’re all in this together and hopefully any area lost will make a difference in this crisis to the Island.’
