27 January 2015
The Minister for Housing, Deputy Anne Pryke is visiting Guernsey today (27 January) to meet with her counterpart, Deputy Dave Jones and the Guernsey Housing Board.
The aim of the visit is to share knowledge and experiences of housing issues across the islands and identify what plans are in place to address them both now and in the future.
Deputy Pryke, accompanied by Officers from the Strategic Housing Unit, will speak about Jersey’s reforms of social housing provision and the creation of Andium Homes as a separate States-owned company to deliver affordable housing.
Changes
Since the last meeting between Housing Ministers in 2012 Guernsey has also seen a number of significant changes such as funding arrangements for affordable housing developments which will also be a focus of the talks. Other items to be discussed include
• ‘Extra care’ development schemes in Guernsey for the elderly
• Jersey’s reforms of social housing and development
• The creation of the Strategic Housing Unit to direct housing strategy in Jersey
• The supply of new affordable homes
Following the meeting there will be a tour of housing developments in Guernsey.
Inter-island working
Deputy Anne Pryke said “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work with our colleagues in Guernsey and learn more about the ways they are dealing with specific issues. There is much to be gained from inter-island working especially for housing where the two islands have found quite different ways of tackling issues. I hope we can identify areas for potential cooperation.”
Jersey and Guernsey are both members of the British Irish Council housing work-stream which meets with other jurisdictions to co-operate and share dialogue on common housing issues and challenges.