Government of Jersey

Empty Government of Jersey Properties (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 15 October 2024.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

What is the number of properties to date owned by the Government of Jersey and Jersey Property Holdings which are recorded as empty (as of September 2024, as I believe the data on 2023 is already available from a previous Freedom of Information request).

Please then provide the same data for 2020, 2015 and 2010?

Response

The information requested is exempt under Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as the information is accessible on www.gov.je within the previous Freedom of Information response linked below.

Government of Jersey Empty Properties (FOI)

The Government of Jersey does not maintain a static list regarding the number of units that were empty each year as the records regarding the usage / vacancy of the properties are regularly updated, therefore, Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law applies

However, Jersey Property Holdings has provided the following information:

No data is held for 2020 specifically; however, the following details will provide an indication to the figures for 2020:

At the end of 2019 there were 64 known vacant units across 35 individual sites and in early 2021 there were 66 known vacant units across 28 sites recorded.
In August 2015 a total number of 130 units were recorded as being vacant. A significant number of these were Harbours and Airports units, which transferred to Ports of Jersey Limited in October 2015.
No data on vacant units for 2010 is held.

Articles applied

Article 10 - Obligation of scheduled public authority to confirm or deny holding Information

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), if –

(a) a person makes a request for information to a scheduled public authority; and

(b) the authority does not hold the information, it must inform the applicant accordingly.

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.