Call for rent-control tribunal

St Lawrence Deputy Kirsten Morel Picture: ROB CURRIE

Deputy Kirsten Morel has lodged propositions calling for the measures, claiming that the action plan recently brought forward by Housing Minister Russell Labey to address the cost of housing in Jersey ‘will take time’ to have an impact.

Recently proposals lodged by Senator Sam Mézec calling for a ‘housing-affordability crisis’ to be declared in the Island were rejected by the States Assembly.

House prices and rents have risen to record levels in Jersey in recent years, with the average price of a three-bedroom property currently more than £700,000, according to the latest government figures.

Now, in his own attempt to improve the situation, Deputy Morel is calling for rent-control laws dating from 1946 to be invoked to reconstitute a rent-control tribunal and re-establish a register of rents in Jersey before the end of the year.

The Deputy would also like to see tenants given online access to the tribunal’s services by 31 December.

The report accompanying his proposition says: ‘The Island does have the legislation already in place to ensure that the most egregious rises in rental prices are dealt with quickly and effectively via the mechanism of a rent-control tribunal.

‘This law remains in force but, as was confirmed by the Solicitor General during the debate of P.31/2021 [the housing-affordability crisis proposition], the law is no longer being observed and the reasons for this are unclear.’

It adds: ‘A rent-control tribunal may not appeal to Members who favour the use of the market to determine rental prices but it is clear that today’s market is no longer able to provide for people on lower incomes and, so, is failing the Island as a whole.

‘By reconstituting the tribunal, Members will be providing Islanders who feel that their landlords have raised their rents beyond a reasonable amount with a route to challenging those rents and in so doing, the Assembly will be providing a stabilisation mechanism for the market by allowing for the highest rents within a given housing unit sector to be moderated.’

Deputy Morel’s proposals add that a register of rents would help Islanders better understand the rental market and could be linked to the planned landlord-licensing scheme. The proposition is scheduled to be debated on 20 July.

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