A big element is the huge appetite of politicians and the public for more housing in all its forms to be delivered in the face of high demand, low supply, and a fast-growing population - with the gap between earnings and house prices ever widening. 

The States has indicated that it will need upwards of 1,700 new homes within the next few years to meet that demand, but housebuilding rates have nowhere near kept up with that ambition and there are strong doubts that the construction industry and linked trades will be able to deliver it.  

And Ms Slade said the Guernsey Housing Association won’t be able to go it alone, especially since it now has over 1,000 properties it must maintain. 

Pictured: The GHA delivers and manages social rental, partial ownership and specialist accommodation.

“We are a housing association that has a development programme," she said. "We're not a development company that dabbles in housing management, and we have got a duty to the tenants who pay their rent to us and that pays for everything that we do to make sure that homes and services we provide to them a good quality. 

“We've gone from scratch to just over 1000 homes - that's 20 years... I think asking an organisation to do the same again, in half the time or less, may be a bit of an unrealistic ask given the construction capacity on the island. Also, the fact that interest rates and borrowing has become much more difficult and it's not the benign kind of financial environment that it once was.  

“It kind of feels like the perfect storm and I can understand why it might appear to some politicians -oh, GHA, dragging their feet. GHA, risk averse.That new woman in charge at GHA is very risk averse - and I think that doesn't allow for an understanding of the wider economic context that we find ourselves in, or recognition of the fact that if you didn't manage risk,I'd suggest you'd be called reckless.We're not in the business of being reckless when it's people's homes and lives and public money involved.” 

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Listen: Express’ latest podcast with Vic Slade 

Developments in the pipeline 

Ms Slade accepted the “fair comments” that nothing has been built yet on public sites, but she insisted the necessary due diligence is being carried out on the sites it’s acquired in recent years. 

“We haven't been sitting on our hands, which I think is probably one of the most frequent things that I see on social media. What are the GHA doing? Why aren't they doing anything? We are doing stuff. It's just that it does take time when you when you've got land, but you need to address constraints. You address the constraints in the background. We're working away furiously, to try to bring forward other sites,” she said. 

“We're not for profit, we're not land bankers, we don't make money from land, or holding on to it or releasing it at a point where profit is highest, because we're not for profit. What we do have to do though, is when that land becomes available is to make sure that any constraints it has are resolvedso that we canactually build homes that aregood quality and fit for purpose. 

“At the end of the day, this isn't about units, or, you know, the number of units in that very kind of commercial sense. It'sactually people's homes,and we have a long-term interest in maintaining those homes over a long period of time. So, we have to make sure they're right.” 

She said there is “no point spending money on the pre-work if you then have to tackle the constraints or the constraints can't be resolved, and then you've wasted the money”. 

But a closer relationship to the States of Guernsey, compared to UK local authorities, means conversations can be faster and franker to help resolve any issues that present themselves, she added. 

Working with the private sector, and GP11 

There are moves to work closer with the private sector to deliver housing in a hybrid approach as shown above. One is the Oberlands site, working in collaboration with Infinity Group. 

“Because of their commercial experience, and their ability to manage in a commercial way, we think we will make better use of the existing grant funding pot, we can get better value for money. And we can also get really good quality product by working with them. And they will fulfil, I think one of their ambitions, which is to try and do some good for the island,” Ms Slade said. 

There are also negotiations to double the number of social units at Pointues Rocques. 

“It is an early stage and I can't say too much about that. But again, I think there's a real willingness from the owners, different owners on the site, to engage with us and talk to us about what could be possible and what could happen. And that, again, would be potentially a sort of mixed sight because it's in private ownership,” she added. 

The States recently voted to freeze the affordable housing contribution policy for five years, which required housing sites of 20 or more units to give up between 20% to 30% of developable land for social housing purposes so some contribution came from the private sector and not just the taxpayer. 

But developers said this was holding back the completion of larger sites due to complex and protracted negotiations. 

Ms Slade said if it helps to increase delivery, it can only be a good thing. 

“The decision is the decision. The equivalent policy in the UK works to some extent, not always, and I think a lot of it depends on land supply, and in Guernsey we're really constrained on supply. So, I think it's really interesting that the States have taken the view that actually we haven't seen anything sort of come from this so far.  

“It's been quite a long time I think that that they've waited. So, let's see what zero rating can actually deliver. And I think that's going to be really important. If there is an appetite out there to increase supply, and the zero rating helps do that, I can't see why anybody would complain about that, because we're part of the solution on supply. But we're not the only solution.  

But she also rejected the notion that public acquisition of land for housing has inflated prices for private developers. 

“I suppose I'd counter that with the question whether those sites were something that the private development market were interested in in the first place? I would probably say no, they're not. I think from our perspective, it's interesting because there is this this kind of thing doing the rounds on social media and seeing other people say that the GHA pay too much for their sites.  

Pictured: 57 one-bedroom flats are planned for health staff on the former CI Tyres site, which the GHA purchased in 2022. Credit: Lovell Ozanne.

“The GHA actually get independent valuations of sites, and sites are valued on the basis of existing use value, but from our perspective they have to be valued a certain way to comply with social housing accounting protocols, which we follow. So,I'll put that one to bed straight away, and just say that we follow a very strict valuation process. We rely on the professionalism and integrity of valuers to make sure that they are valuing sites correctly in the first place.” 

The States agreed last year for a new dedicated borrowing facility specifically for social housing purposes, to be guaranteed by government and lent to the GHA, or another social housing provider. 

This came as politicians made suggestions that the GHA has gone cold on an aggressive housebuilding programme. 

Ms Slade said that development is a welcome one, as she said additional moves to deliver housing to the levels desired by the States will require new approaches, including restarting State-led housebuilding which fell away after the GHA was set up in the early 00s. 

“If you can work with the government to borrow through the government, particularly at a time of relative uncertainty, over rates and the cost of money, if you can bring some certainty into the business for the long term, and that that kind of commercial borrowing, it means you can plan your business much better. You're not having to factor in uncertainty. So, the fact that the States have done that is really, really helpful for us,” she said. 

“It makes sense for the States to look at ways they can assist with supply. So, I think it's positive that it's in the housing plan. And then the talk of another housing association, again, the States have got a strategic housing responsibility to the island. And so, our priority is to help people in housing need, the States’ priorities to help people in housing need - and it's right that the States should consider any option available to them to make that happen.We're part of a solution, we are not the solution.”