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Policy and Resources will be ‘re-energising’ the Housing Action Group, which was formed three years ago to tackle the island’s housing problems.
Led by its new President, Lyndon Trott, the Committee will be reaching out to interested parties and key committees within the States to form a group that thinks about affordable housing ‘from when they wake up’.
Deputy Trott spoke about the need for a dedicated group during an interview with Express.
“One of the statistics that I have learned since I've been in this role is... that is that there are well over 530 [estimated] current permissions in place. So, in other words, the DPA has approved 530 planning applications.
"530 houses could be started right now if there was sufficient capacity within the local construction industry... but of those 530, only two dozen fall into the affordable housing category.”
Pictured Deputy Trott said that providing affordable housing is the island’s “number one domestic challenge”.
"What I have asked, and the Policy and Resources Committee has agreed, and we shall be speaking to all of our colleagues about this quite soon, is the creation – or reformation of a group - that involves all the interested parties within the States and all the committees for whom development touches their mandate, which I've offered to chair.
“I want to fulfil that promise that a group of people need to wake up every morning and the first thing they need to think about is affordable housing.
"One of the ways of doing that is to make sure that the matter is never allowed to drop off the priority list.”
Back in 2021 the Committees of Employment and Social, Security, and Environment and Infrastructure, joined with the board of the Housing Strategy Programme to develop a housing action group.
The group was disbanded; however, a resolution to identify all the States owned land that could be used for housing called ‘The ‘Discharging the “Housing Action Plan”’ led to the publication of a tranche of identified plots.
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