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All new private-sector housing developments of more than 50 homes will have to designate 15% of them as 'affordable', after States Members backed a proposal by the leader of Reform Jersey.
Ex-Housing Minister Senator Sam Mezec had originally wanted the threshold to be just five homes, but he accepted an amendment to his own from Environment Minister John Young raising it to 50.
With the backing of Deputy Young, the new policy – which will come into force next January – received widespread support in the Assembly during Day 6 of the mammoth three-year 'Bridging Island Plan' (BIP).
Senator Mezec said that the idea was neither new nor unique, with it having been a component of the 2011 Island Plan, but the policy had been “quietly dropped”.
“Now, in 2022, we are in housing crisis, and we need to make an extra effort to make up for lost years,” he said.
Deputy Young described the policy as “a start”, adding that it was quite possible that the 50-home threshold would come down in time and the 15% limit would increase.
The States Assembly has voted to APPROVE Senator @SamMezecJsy’s amendment to the draft Bridging Island Plan, as amended by the Minister for the Environment. https://t.co/2NvbU5mR2r
— States Assembly - Jersey's elected parliament (@StatesAssembly) March 21, 2022
Pictured: States Members overwhelmingly backed Senator Sam Mezec's first-of-two propositions on housing policy.
He said that that, instead of “affordable”, the policy referred to “assisted purchase” homes, which added more flexibility, including the possibility of developers paying for lower cost homes to be built elsewhere.
“Although this policy begins with a very high threshold, with this amendment, we are delivering a strong message to developers to prepare for it to be extended in three years’ time,” he said.
“There are sufficient safeguards in place and there is also a provision for the Government to assess how well it works and whether it is getting fair share of yield of assisted purchase homes.”
Senator Mézec said afterwards that it was a "bit of a shock" that a majority of States Members ended up voting in favour, and described it as an "important victory which will help deliver more affordable housing."
Very pleasing result in the States this afternoon, with the approval of my amendment to introduce an affordable housing contribution in large private developments.
— Senator Sam Mézec (@SamMezecJsy) March 21, 2022
This will help alleviate the housing crisis.
But there is still much more to do. pic.twitter.com/Q6Kt4SDM5C
After accepting the amendment, the Assembly then moved onto a more controversial one proposed by Senator Mezec.
This seeks to introduce a binding policy to the BIP that every residential development on Government-owned land shall be 100% affordable homes unless it can be clearly proven that the development would be unviable if it went ahead on that basis.
If approved, the policy would extend to all taxpayer-owned land, including that overseen by Andium Homes, Ports of Jersey and the Jersey Development Company.
The debate will resume on Tuesday morning.
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