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The amount of publicly owned housing on the Pointues Rocques site could be doubled.
The Guernsey Housing Association has been given permission by the States to negotiate a deal with the landowners and prospective developers to increase the number of affordable housing units to nearly two thirds of the total site.
Planning approval was given for the controversial development near Delancey in July 2022, with the affordable housing policy triggered requiring 30% of the land to be handed over to the housing provider for partial ownership and social rental properties.
But a new joint development approach could see the GHA take on most of the 68 homes, with the remainder left for the private market.
Originally the approved plans featured thirty houses, 10 flats and 12 maisonettes alongside 16 affordable homes.
Negotiations are ongoing to thrash out a deal with all parties, but it will need sign-off from the GHA Executive, Employment & Social Security, which has responsibility for public housing, and Policy & Resources.
The first phase of the site has been on the market for nearly a year for around £7m through Lovells & Partners.
Pictured: A screen grab from the listing on Lovells.
Deputy Peter Roffey, President of ESS, said planning policy GP11 – which requires a set percentage of affordable units on larger developments – was to thank for these negotiations.
He said it would “support the viability of private market development at this site” while making “real in-roads" to increasing the island’s housing stock.
Developers don’t have to comply with GP11 if they can prove doing so would render a project commercially unviable by eating into industry-standard profit margins. To date, Pointues Rocques is the only application that has successfully included the policy.
Meanwhile Vic Slade, CEO of the GHA, said it represents “an opportunity to bring forward more affordable, general needs homes than might otherwise be possible on this site.”
Express has put questions to the landowners.
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