A BACKBENCHER has sustained a narrow defeat in a bid for the government to publish an audit of first-time-buyer and affordable homes.
The proposition by Deputy Alex Curtis sought to require the Housing Minister to draw up a register of developments falling under first-time buyer or affordability ownership schemes, and to keep the register updated as new sites were identified.
Deputy Curtis said there was a lack of data around how many of the Island’s 48,000 private homes had some form of restriction around their sale or ownership. The results of the proposed audit would, he said, help ensure better policy decisions were made in the future.
Housing Minister Sam Mézec said that work was already underway to improve the quality of data, but that it was not realistic for this work to be completed by the deadline of 30 September this year given by Deputy Curtis.
Deputy Sir Philip Bailhache said he felt that the civil service should have capacity to carry out work of this kind during the election period, and that if the minister felt the target date was unachievable, he should have brought an amendment including a later alternative deadline.
Contrasting opinions were aired about the amount of work that would be required. Treasury Minister Elaine Millar said it would be a “mammoth undertaking”, but Deputy Jonathan Renouf said it would be straightforward and could be carried out by using artificial intelligence.
After a 45-minute debate, Members voted by 21-19 to reject the proposition.
