WIDENING the eligibility criteria for the government’s Affordable Housing Gateway – responsible for determining who can access social housing – coupled with the “increased needs of vulnerable Islanders” has caused a rise in application assessment times.
Last year, 58.1% of new Affordable Housing Gateway applications were assessed within two days, falling notably short of the 90% target.
The figure was cited in the Annex to the 2025 States of Jersey Annual Report and Accounts.
The document states that: “Widening of the Affordable Housing Gateway eligibility criteria in 2025, along with increased needs of vulnerable Islanders, affected our ability to respond to new applications within our SLA [Service Level Agreement].
“A full complement of officers and development of more robust processes will mitigate the impact on performance in 2026.”
A number of changes to the eligibility criteria, including the age and income thresholds, have been made since the publication of former Housing Minister David Warr’s “Roadmap for improving access to social housing in Jersey” in 2023.
This includes changes that came into effect at the start of this year, when current Housing Minister Sam Mézec announced an update to the roadmap to “further improve opportunities for those looking for affordable, good-quality homes”.
The policy addendum noted that: “At the end of November 2025, 643 applications were registered on the Affordable Housing Gateway, a decrease from 813 when the roadmap was published in July 2023.
“This noticeable reduction in the number of applications reflects the impact of new social housing supply, even as the eligibility criteria for social housing has been widened as a result of the roadmap.”
The former head of social housing provider Jersey Homes Trust, Michael Van Neste, said that the criteria had previously “excluded a lot of people who were not accounted for”.
He contended that its widening was “essential” and that “if that has led to some delay”, it was “a delay worth having” provided there were plans in place to correct it.
“The gateway performs a very useful service for the Island, both in managing applications and also assessing the need for residential accommodation,” he added.
