Deputy John Young said the States might have to take this action if owners did not take it upon themselves to redevelop their sites.
A total of 11 fields in seven parishes were earmarked as potential sites for cheaper new-build homes when the planning document, which covers the years 2022 to 2025, was released earlier this year. And amendments to the plan lodged by States Members have brought a number of other sites into consideration for development for the purpose.
During a Scrutiny hearing of the Environmental, Housing and Infrastructure Panel yesterday, Deputy Steve Luce said that in the previous Island Plan there had been sites rezoned for affordable housing, but planning applications had never actually been sought for them.
He asked Deputy Young whether he felt that compulsory purchase orders for such sites should now become a remedy for this kind of scenario.
In response, the minister said: ‘I think in principle, yes. One has to look at the sites that are coming forward individually. I do think that if they are accepted by the States, they will in my view need to carry affordable homes.’
Deputy Young added that compulsory purchase would need to be approved by the States and subject to certain preconditions.
‘Compulsory purchase – when I was [Planning] chief officer, we used it all the time. It has not been used recently.
‘The law is about as simple as you can get – the Compulsory Purchase of Land (1961) Law. There’s no appeal against and it is very effective indeed. Three notices and the land is transferred and you sort the price out in the Royal Court and the court of arbitration.
‘But of course the States have to approve that land be acquired by compulsory purchase previously and it has to have money in place for that land to be acquired.
‘The problem is, States Members are generally very unhappy or unwilling to use compulsory purchase and that’s been the case for years. Nonetheless, there are occasions where it is necessary.’
During the hearing, Deputy Young said that the development of affordable housing in Jersey had been hampered by a lack of co-operation between government departments, and he called for ‘joined-up’ thinking.
He said: ‘I think that people have the impression that the planning officers and development control are in control of this – they’re not; they are regulators of it.
‘What we need is the other parts of government – the providers, the drivers and the doers – to deliver. That’s where being joined up comes in.
‘We need the Housing Minister and we need the Treasury Minister to make sure there’s money available to buy those sites. We need the Infrastructure Minister to get those sites acquired.
‘At the moment the Infrastructure Minister tells me he’s got no money available to buy land, which I think is a ludicrous situation.
‘And then there’s the Chief Minister, who needs to show support too. That’s the sort of joined-up thinking we really need to deliver this.’
He added that the pooling of government resources to develop a ‘land bank’ for affordable housing had long been his desire as minister.
