£2.9m parish property sale approved - with a catch

Thursday 08 August 2019

Parishioners have approved the £2.9m sale of a former town care home and nursery to a private developer – but only if they agree to a last-minute clause hoping to secure further benefit for the parish.

Despite strong opposition from the island’s Housing Minister, Senator Sam Mézec, the sale of St. Helier House was narrowly voted through at a parish meeting last night – 48 votes to 43.

Although they were split over the deal itself, parishioners at the meeting were near-unanimous in agreeing to a betterment clause that, after development, would see some of the increased value of the site make its way back into parish pockets.

However, if Columbia Estates – the development company revealed to be the potential purchasers last night – don’t agree with the amendment to the sale, the entire deal could be scuppered.

Pictured: St. Helier House, which is located in the area of Westmount.

During the meeting, it emerged that Andium Homes – the government’s social housing wing – had put in a bid deemed too low by the Parish of St. Helier.

Social Security Minister Deputy Judy Martin, who represents St. Helier in the States Assembly, suggested hat Andium should have put in a higher offer due to its access to a £250million bond.

This stance was criticised by the Housing Minister, who in advance of the meeting had maintained that “public land should not be sold off for private profit”.

In comments posted to social media two hours after the meeting, he warned: “It is absolutely wrong that a publicly owned social housing provider should be expected to get into bidding wars with the private sector.

“This would do nothing but inflate the price of land and increase the costs of delivering social housing. It could also force private development costs up. Nobody would benefit from this except wealthy landowners who would pocket funding which is allocated to helping people on low incomes.”

Senator Mézec continued: “So long as I am Minister for Housing, I will NOT allow this to become policy.

“Instead, there should be a presumption that when public land becomes available, it should go to affordable or social housing, not private profiteers.”

St. Helier House had previously operated as a care home, but its residents were forced to move out in 2017 and early 2018 after fire safety issues emerged in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

A nursery also operates on the premises, which the Parish says it's working hard to relocate.