Jersey’s Housing Minister has been accused of not being on top of his brief, giving contradictory answers and failing to engage with key stakeholders, in an unusually scathing statement issued by a States Scrutiny Panel.
The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel has publicly questioned Deputy Malcolm Ferey’s grasp of his responsibilities following a hearing today, just four months after he took office.
In a remarkable intervention, the Panel said it was concerned that the Minister “isn’t yet up to speed with the Housing remit”, despite housing being identified as a key priority in the Government’s recently published Common Strategic Policy.
Among the concerns raised were:
- A lack of preparation: The Minister admitted he had not yet considered certain policy issues, despite being four months into the job.
- Contradictory answers: The Minister appeared unable to reconcile his priority of increasing housing supply with Statistics Jersey projections suggesting a future surplus of homes under a net nil migration scenario.
- Poor coordination: The Minister had not yet held structured meetings with his Planning and Infrastructure counterparts to develop housing policy.
- Homelessness: Despite a reported increase in homelessness, the Minister had not yet met with the Homelessness Cluster and saw no need for a cross-government ministerial group to tackle its underlying causes.
- Tenants overlooked: The Panel expressed concern that the Minister’s approach to consultation appeared to prioritise landlords and letting agents over tenants.
Perhaps most strikingly, the Panel revealed that Deputy Ferey had only held a brief conversation with the Planning Minister about the controversial consultation on reducing minimum housing size standards, and that his input had been based on personal experience rather than evidence gathered from Islanders.
That consultation has already attracted criticism over the apparent exclusion of ordinary residents from the initial exercise.
The Panel’s statement raises serious questions about the Government’s ability to deliver on one of its most important priorities, at a time when housing affordability remains a major concern for Islanders.
The Jersey Chronicle has reproduced the Panel’s statement in full below.
Readers can also watch the public hearing themselves and make up their own minds about the Minister’s performance.
–
Full statement from the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel
The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel has today held a public hearing with the Minister for Housing, Deputy Malcolm Ferey.
Following the Hearing, the Panel is concerned that the Minister isn’t yet up to speed with the Housing remit four months into the role and after the publication of the Common Strategic Policy which includes providing more homes as a key priority. He said he hasn’t yet had a chance to consider certain policy issues and while saying he wanted to create more future-proofed housing, when asked why sites zoned for housing aren’t being developed, he cited planning problems; before agreeing with his Officer that there is a wider economic issue of land pricing and build costs.
There also appears to be a contradiction in what the Statistics Jersey data shows, i.e. that the shortage of properties we have in Jersey is just 310 units which in a net nil migration scenario means we will have a surplus of homes by 2040, and the Minister’s main priority which is to increase housing. The Minister is also responsible for population policy and did not give a clear reason behind that disconnect between data and policy.
The Panel is also concerned that the Minister said he only had a brief conversation with the Planning and Regulation Minister about the recently launched consultation into proposed minimum size standards for housing, and that his input was not based on data from Islanders but his own experiences.
There is also a wider concern that the Minister hasn’t yet held structured meetings with the Planning and Regulation Minister and Infrastructure Minister while developing his housing policy and priorities.
The Panel learned that there has been a slight increase in the numbers of islanders who are homeless, but the Minister has yet to meet with the Homelessness Cluster in order to discuss how to tackle this. The Minister also doesn’t feel the need for a Ministerial group, across departments, to tackle the wider causal issues resulting in homelessness. This raises further concerns about silo working within the Government.
The Panel would also like to highlight that the Ministers’ answers to questions about communications and consultations have heavily focused on landlords and agents; and appears to be missing out on tenant stakeholders through its approach and focus.
The Panel is glad to hear the Minister would like to collect rental data and acknowledges this will need a Ministerial Order to take effect. The Panel hopes that this will be forthcoming shortly.