FUTURE affordable-housing developments should be ‘much bigger’ and include a mix of ‘all types of units’, according to the former head of the Jersey Housing Trust.
Michael Van Neste also stressed the importance of having open space and community facilities for residents but praised the work that social-housing provider Andium Homes is doing.
His comments came after the National Trust for Jersey said that Andium’s plans to build more than 260 affordable homes on the Ann Street Brewery site – mainly comprising one- and two-bed properties – did not adequately address the Island’s housing crisis.
The trust said it believed that the scheme should match the requirements identified in the Island’s 2019 Objective Assessment of Housing Need report. That document highlighted that more than 50% of the homes required were three- and four-bedroom properties.
Mr Van Neste said: ‘I would like to see future developments feature a mix of all different types of units, with one-, two, three- and four-bedroom homes. In order to do this, we need much bigger, well designed schemes with lots of open space for people to benefit from. We have also got to look at nearby community facilities as we know this is an important feature for anyone who moves into a new home.’
He added: ‘Andium should be commended for the work they are doing. They have good information and have got a grip on the requirements of Islanders who need social housing.’
Mr Van Neste said that the government needed to give Andium the tools ‘to do more’ and to enable them to continue building affordable housing.
‘The advantage of developing one- and two-bed units is that it allows people to downsize or right size. There is still a great need for one- and two-bed units and the place to build this is in the urban areas,’ he added.
While the trust criticised the composition of the units proposed for the Ann Street Brewery site in a public comment published on the government’s Planning website, it also welcomed plans to restore a number of listed buildings in the area as part of the project.
Reform Jersey leader Deputy Sam Mézec, who was housing minister at the time that the 2019 Objective Assessment of Housing Need report was published, said he thought the document was now outdated.
‘Since then, we have widened the criteria for social housing and I think [the report] now drastically understates the need for affordable housing,’ he said.
He said that land had been rezoned in the Bridging Island Plan to help address the need for three- and four-bed properties.
Deputy Mézec continued: ‘It is not always just about building three- or four-bedroom units though. We can make homes available without creating new ones. If one person living in a three-bedroom home right sizes to something smaller, then suddenly that property becomes available.’
