A BID to ensure that only affordable homes are built on States-owned land has been defeated in the States, during the second week of the Bridging Island Plan debate.
Senator Sam Mézec’s proposal called for changes to be made to planning policy so that affordable housing would be prioritised unless it made the development ‘unviable’.
Instead, Members backed an amendment from Environment Minister John Young yesterday – which Senator Mézec said had ‘wrecked’ his proposal – to back affordable homes unless the development needed ‘to specifically provide open-market homes’. In this case, a minimum of 15% would be made available for Islanders looking for assisted-purchase housing.
Deputy Young said this would help to make any public and community infrastructure that came with these developments viable.
Senator Mézec urged Members to ‘try to live in the real world’, labelling Deputy Young’s amendment a ‘Royal Square bubble idea, which doesn’t meet the needs of our constituents’.
However, the minister said the Reform Jersey leader’s proposal was too ‘inflexible’ and ‘prescriptive’ and could lead to a loss of community infrastructure, while other Members raised concerns that passing the original amendment could have caused delays to significant development projects on the Waterfront and South Hill, which aim to create over 1,000 homes.
A previous proposition from Senator Mézec to boost the percentage of affordable homes at these sites from 15% was rejected by the States in November.
Addressing Members yesterday, Deputy Young said: ‘I distance myself from that right-wing free-market perspective and also distance myself from the alternative view. What I always seek is compromise, I find ways forward.’
Senator Ian Gorst said: ‘I do not accept Reform’s [Jersey] economic view that government-owned land is free.’
But Deputy Montfort Tadier argued that the ‘default position’ should be to maximise these sites for public benefit ‘not for profit’.
Housing Minister Russell Labey said the ‘biggest threat’ to arms-length organisations such as the States of Jersey Development Company ‘reaching their goals’ and ‘hitting their targets’ was the Assembly, including political decisions, political indecisions and political U-turns.
Another of Senator Mézec’s amendments was passed unanimously by the States this week, so that all larger residential developments have to include a proportion of affordable homes.
Senator Mézec initially aimed for a rate of 12.5%, rising incrementally to 20% after five years. However, he accepted an amendment from Deputy Young, meaning developments of over 50 homes will be supported if at least 15% are made available for Islanders who require assisted-purchase housing. Eligibility for these affordable homes will be determined by the Housing Minister. The policy applies from January 2023.
The Reform Jersey Senator said that he did not consider the compromise ‘ideal’ but added that ‘in the interest of making progress’ he was satisfied.
He added: ‘In the interest of saying to the industry that it is now time for you to play your part and get something enacted in this plan and in force by January next year so that when these large developments are going ahead, they’re going ahead with the knowledge that they will be making a contribution to affordable housing in Jersey, helping to address the crisis and provide homes for those people who need them, then I think it’s worth compromising on that and saying OK, this is good enough to get some progress.’
Under the terms of the amendment, any development which falls just below the 50-home threshold will have to prove that it is not under-occupied and is not simply trying to avoid the 15% rule. The rules will be periodically reviewed by the Environment Minister, who will look at the viability of decreasing the threshold and increasing the proportion of affordable homes.
