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A fresh attempt to push through housing on a field at the PEH has been made.
Policy & Resources and Health & Social Services have submitted more information to planners in an attempt to answer their concerns, a move which now means the public has until Wednesday 25 October to comment or object.
To get permission for the three- and four-storey building to provide 66 units of key worker accommodation on the agricultural land, the application needs to be a “development of strategic importance”.
The initial application was submitted in December, but the Development & Planning Authority told P&R it needed more detail to show why the site was the best option available, something that would be helped by a detailed site selection study and environmental, economic and social assessments.
Pictured: Deputy Peter Ferbrache.
It pointed out that other nearby sites like Braye Lodge, the former CI Tyres and even the car park at Frossard House were all potentials for key worker housing close to the hospital.
The Authority was also unhappy that sites were eliminated simply because they were more than a 10 minute walk away.
In a submission on behalf of P&R, its president Deputy Peter Ferbrache said: “The Committee is pursuing every available option to secure homes for public sector health and care key workers in its capacity in the role of employer and additionally as the States Committee responsible for the management of States’ property assets.
“The Committee for Health & Social Care is responsible for the safe delivery of public health and cares services and is consistently reporting difficulty in attracting and retaining staff due in significant part to difficulty in their finding suitable and affordable accommodation. The result is an unacceptable reliance on agency staff which attracts very high operating cost.”
He said that since making the first application, the Committee has explored every avenue available to address housing supply and affordability in the island.
The Authority could rely on government led initiatives like the Housing Action Plan and Guernsey Housing Plan “to secure a solid understanding of the intense activity that is on-going to address both short and long term housing issues across all sectors and should base its determination of this application in that context".
It has submitted a new site selection matrix to reflect the purchase of the CI Tyres site and the former Braye Lodge site.
Pictured: Sites near the PEH considered for housing hospital workers.
Deputy Ferbrache continued: “To demonstrate the demand is not met by these developments alone, the Committee also submits recent correspondence between the Committee and the Committee for Health & Social Care.
"This was predicated on the latter’s 2024 budget submission re- affirming significant cost pressures once again, which are heavily influenced by factors such as recruitment challenges and housing costs. These cost pressures add to those already faced by the community through the States of Guernsey’s structural deficit and most certainty meet the above definition of ‘otherwise in the public interest’.”
In his letter, Health and Social Care President Al Brouard said that in a challenging operating environment, ”the shortage of good quality, self-contained accommodation is a significant limitation on HSC’s efforts to recruit and retain staff".
“The Committee acknowledges that this is not the only factor that affects staff recruitment, but it remains a very important one. Addressing this issue through the increased availability of housing will improve HSC’s ability to recruit and retain staff; a point that extends across its workforce - not just those staff recruited from off-Island.”
Pictured: HSC President Deputy Al Brouard.
He emphasised that feedback from some staff working for HSC was a strong preference for self-contained accommodation, modern, without the need to share basic facilities.
“A proportion of staff who work with us, or who could be recruited to fill vacancies in our services, have a need for accommodation that is within easy walking distance of the PEH. The Committee has therefore consistently emphasised that it could immediately fill accommodation that would be offered by the equivalent of another John Henry Court if this option was available, and this would undoubtedly (although not exclusively) go some way towards meeting HSC’s need for key worker accommodation.”
He also stressed that HSC needed additional accommodation to be delivered in a “timely way”.
“It is recognised that efforts over the last 12 months are such that other housing options for key worker accommodation within a short distance of the PEH have been identified and are now further along in the development process. The Committee supports these options and is grateful to the DPA and others for facilitating these opportunities,” he said.
“However, while noting that these other options now seem more likely to be brought to fruition that they were, say, 12 months ago, there have been delays in bringing these sites forward for development. The ongoing delay in the delivery of key worker accommodation causes every day, practical issues for staffing HSC’s services and this cannot be understated.”
He added that in terms of site selection, using one that is both in States’ ownership, so avoiding long negotiations buying off a private owner, and which does not rely on a property being ‘freed up’ elsewhere, “meant that there was an expectation that some of the identified housing needs could be met more quickly if land around the PEH was utilised”.
Any additional representations will be taken into account, together with any previous representations, when the application is considered.
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