USING the former Social Security building in La Motte Street to house arms-length bodies and organisations may not be “cost effective on that site”, the Infrastructure Minister has said.
However, Constable Andy Jehan stressed that he was “absolutely” in favour of bringing ALOs together to share resources where possible.
He made the comments after Jersey Consumer Council chair Carl Walker said the government should research whether savings could be made by “giving all these vital services one roof”, such as Philip Le Feuvre House.
Currently on the market alongside the neighbouring Huguenot House office block, the site was once home to Customer and Local Services before the new government headquarters on Union Street came into use.
Mr Walker said that there are approximately 140 arms-length organisations or bodies operating in Jersey and that “almost all of them are renting premises or office space at commercial rates, all paying for separate internet access, phone line rentals, IT services”.
He contended that research could be undertaken into “whether a saving could be made by housing all of the ALOs and ALBs under one roof in a government building, such as Philip Le Feuvre House”.
Acknowledging Mr Walker’s comments, Mr Jehan said: “I’m not sure it would be cost effective to do it on that site, but it certainly makes sense to have more of our arms-length bodies under one roof – wherever that is.”
He also pointed out that the site had been briefly taken off the market and then readvertised without a section that is now being retained by the Health Department.
“What I don’t want to do is take it off the market again and give the market no confidence that, when we say we are going to sell something, we are actually going to sell something,” he added.
Additionally, Mr Jehan noted government efforts to bring different bodies together in another vacated building, at Jubilee Wharf.
He explained: “That’s taking much longer than we’d hoped because of the existing contracts that they are in.”
