Minister to introduce policy ‘to keep cost of affordable homes down on rezoned sites’

Field J1109 was bought by Melrose Homes Ltd for ?3.55m Picture: JON GUEGAN. (34370647)

A POLICY to ensure the cost of affordable housing is ‘kept down’ on sites rezoned within the Bridging Island Plan will soon be introduced, according to the Housing Minister.

Deputy David Warr has warned developers that he is set to publish a policy in a bid to deliver affordable homes at a lower value than may previously have been the case on such sites.

He said it would help prevent ‘overinflated, speculative land values’ being paid for land redesignated for affordable housing within the Bridging Island Plan, and added he supported proposals for a windfall tax on the large profits generated from the rezoning process.

Housing Minister David Warr is set to publish a policy in a bid to deliver affordable housing on sites rezoned within the Bridging Island Plan

His comments followed those of Environment Minister Jonathan Renouf, who said he would be bringing forward proposals to recover some of the money generated from the sale of rezoned land for development after field J1109 – next to Sion Methodist Church on Grande Route de St Jean – was bought by Melrose Homes Ltd for £3.55 million.

With agricultural land estimated to be worth between £7-10,000 per vergée depending on its quality, the 6.71-vergée site could have been worth around £70,000 before the rezoning took place.

Deputy Warr said: ‘In respect of the recent headline “Call for windfall tax after rezoned field fetches £3.5m”, as the article highlights, the rezoned housing sites under Policy H5 of the Bridging Island Plan are specifically required to deliver affordable homes.

‘These affordable homes must be delivered in line with the affordable housing policy which I, as Housing Minister, am responsible for.

‘This is in addition to the supplementary planning guidance, which is due to be issued by the Environment Minister by the end of this year.’

He added: ‘The public decision for these sites to deliver housing has significantly enhanced their land value, and it is only right that the public are able to secure some benefit from this in the form of affordable homes.’

Deputy Warr explained that he would soon be publishing an affordable housing policy that would be applied to the Bridging Island Plan sites.

‘This will address the deepening issue of housing affordability by effectively serving to keep down the value of the assisted-purchase properties that will be delivered.

‘This should help to avoid overinflated, speculative land values being paid, whilst ensuring the new homes are affordable,’ he added.

He also urged developers – who are currently in negotiations with landowners about the potential purchase of such sites – to be aware that the policy would set a ‘necessarily high bar’ to deliver homes at ‘a much lower value than may have been secured on historic affordable and first-time buyer housing sites’.

‘We are not in a position to provide financial advice to developers, but I would stress the need for them to have regard to this in site negotiations,’ he said.

‘We don’t want to see bad deals being done, especially if this might serve to jeopardise the viability of delivering much-needed affordable homes and good quality forms of development,’ he added.

Deputy Warr also revealed that he ‘fully’ supported Deputy Renouf’s intention to introduce a form of windfall tax on the value uplift created by planning decisions.

‘Landowners are set to realise a huge value increase on these sites, even after the affordable housing and other planning requirements are taken into account,’ he said.

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