Construction industry backs new housing committee

Wednesday 10 July 2024

Leading figures in Guernsey’s construction industry have supported the possibility of the States reestablishing a dedicated housing department to alleviate current woes.

John Bampkin, Chair of the Guernsey Construction Forum and CEO of Norman Piette Group, told Express that representatives from the industry met with five deputies last week to discuss housing and proposed amendments to planning laws intended to deliver enough accommodation over the coming years.

But he also said there was “widespread support” among construction leaders for two separate matters: a political petition seeking to set up a single body to deliver housing in government and a new housing forum including builders, businesspeople, and employers to discuss opportunities and address vacancies.

Mr Bampkin said the current arrangements for housing, split between multiple States departments means “decision making, is both laborious and inefficient.

“This is all a tall order from where we sit today but the creation of one central source of decision making and information within the States is the only way we will solve the current Housing Crisis in a way that is conducive to the sustainability of Guernsey socially, environmentally and economically.

“With a pressing need for more accommodation, which is quite frankly at crisis levels, we support the need for speed on this subject but also the quality of decision making has to be right.

“We believe this is the only way we will deliver the [Island Development Plan] in the right way and within the next few years.”

housing house building

Pictured: The GCF is comprised over a dozen leading local professionals across contracting, architecture, engineering and surveying.

The Development & Planning Authority has now launched a public inquiry to change planning laws, and its recommending that six new sites are zoned specifically for affordable housing within existing built-up areas, with boundaries redrawn around the Castel Hospital site to lower the bar for future development.

Its analysis indicates there is already sufficient land zoned for new private market housing, but is seeking support to re-zone the data park site, now in public ownership, to a mixed-use area for social housing and light industry.

Just days after these plans were published two initiatives spearheaded by deputies emerged independently.

Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller is leading the charge for the States to set up a housing committee again, seeking States approval for cash to be allocated to it alongside the budgets for housing that currently sit with Environment, Policy & Resources, and Employment & Social Security.

She and several other deputies have submitted a Requête for debate in the States in September, saying the new body would “seek to organise and resource ourselves to best deliver against government priorities”, with housing still a top States priority.

Meanwhile, Deputy Nick Moakes penned a letter to Express calling for a new forum to be created, reporting directly to government, encouraging joined-up thinking between all sectors on housing and be "tasked with finding ways to resolve the current housing crisis and help to develop the island’s future housing policies".

Mr Bampkin said he and his peers are “currently talking to the likes of the finance industry, Chamber of Commerce and the IoD to explore the setting up of a Housing Development Forum designed to discuss these opportunities and also advise on how we can fund these programs to quickly bring them to bear.

Pictured: The States will vote on setting up a housing committee later this year.

“Each of these bodies currently has major issues caused by the inability to house the people that we need to sustain ourselves and we believe that their knowledge, resources and support will assist massively with this,” Mr Bampkin added.

“The construction industry also needs the confidence in a plan that we all commit to in order to enable us to find or train the amount of skills and resources - it takes two to three years minimum to train a skilled tradesperson - that we will need to deliver these projects using on-island workforce to assist with the economy of the island via local tax revenues.

“We recognise that we only have so much real-estate that can and should be used but we strongly believe there is enough potential already within either land purchased by the States, brownfield sites identified for development or redevelopment opportunities of old buildings to satisfy this need for a number of years without being detrimental to the landscape & open spaces of the island.”

An initial period of written comments and suggestions to the DPA’s amendments closes on 29 July.

Pictured (top): John Bampkin.