Jersey Homes Trust appoints new Chair

Wednesday 12 January 2022

A local lawyer has been appointed as the new Chair of housing association, the Jersey Homes Trust.

A trustee of the organisation for more than 10 years, Philip Le Cornu will be taking over from current Chair and founder of the trust, Michael Van Neste.

Mr Le Cornu qualified as a Barrister, before joining Ogier as a trust lawyer. Since then, he has moved into the fiduciary services business, and was group director with global responsibility for Intertrust.

He also set up and ran operational support for a global charitable foundation, and, early on in the pandemic, became one of the original trustees of the Jersey Community Foundation.

"I am honoured and delighted to have been asked to take on the chairmanship of the Jersey Homes Trust," Mr Le Cornu said.

"The work achieved already under Michael’s leadership has been phenomenal. With the continuing need for social rented housing, the Jersey Homes Trust will continue to focus on developing more homes for the residents of the island."

Mr Van Neste added: "I am sure that under Philip’s leadership the JHT will continue to fulfil the aims and objectives for which it was set up. The continued provision of social rented housing stock is needed now more than ever."

The Association was set up in 1994 after then President of the States’ Housing Committee, Len Norman, invited Michael Van Neste to set up an organisation to increase the stock of social rented housing in the island.

In the JHT's annual report for 2021, Mr Van Neste paid tribute to his "dear friend and constant supporter of the work of the Trust, Connetable Len Norman." He remembered him as "a reliable and effective champion of our ethos and performance."

27 years on from this invite, the JHT owns and manages 839 homes spread over 24 estates.

In his final report as Chair, Mr Van Neste also laid out many of the issues currently facing housing in Jersey, citing a "a profound failure to provide, for the island's people, a decent stock of affordable housing with the resultant social and economic problems", and calling for more sites to be provided by Government for social housing.