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Guernsey’s failure to build enough houses continued last year, monitoring figures show.
In March last year the States agreed that an annual average of 313 additional units of accommodation should be created annually if Guernsey is to meet its housing need.
Monitoring reports for each quarter of 2023 are now published and show that 168 dwellings were completed, a shortfall of 145. All were constructed in the private sector.
The trend has been a stubborn one, in 2022 95 units were finished, in 2021 it was 125 (35 of which were classed as affordable), in 2020 it was 132 (46 affordable) and in 2019 it was 78.
The figures for this year were confirmed by the release of the fourth quarter Island Development Plan monitoring report and come with deputies set to debate whether to remove a requirement for large developments to include an affordable housing element which critics have argued has done much to stall housing building.
The monitoring reports primary purpose is to ensure there are enough housing permissions in the pipeline to meet the number of additional accommodation units that should be created each year, known officially as the States Strategic Housing Indicator.
In Q4 of 2023 there were 619 dwellings in the pipeline, which is within the 562-690 target range, made up of applications that had been given full planning permission but work had not yet started, outline planning permissions and units being built.
Full planning permissions were granted for 78 additional dwellings on 37 sites in the last three months of 2023.
The latest was for 19 units to be built at the rear of Le Four Banal, Route Militaire.
The approvals were split with 47 dwellings in Main Centres around Town and the Bridge, 19 in Local Centres like Cobo and St Martins and 12 outside of these areas.
Nine permissions were for greenfield sites.
Building work began on only 14 dwellings.
The Island Development Plan identified 15 sites for major housing development.
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