Housing wants first refusal on former States sites

Guernsey's Committee for Housing wants first refusal on three States-owned sites that could be freed up if plans for a new children's services hub are approved by the States.

An amendment to a policy letter on a proposed £22m hub would give Housing the first opportunity to assess land at Lukis House, Swissville and Garden Hill for affordable and mixed-tenure housing.

The sites would become available if children's services teams, currently spread across five locations, moved into a refurbished Raymond Falla House under Health and Social Care's plans.

Deputy Steve Williams, who lodged the amendment, said the move could create between 70 and 150 homes across the three sites.

"They're in a great location near facilities in St Peter Port, and they're also States-owned, so we wouldn't have to buy land to add more housing," he said.

Williams said the amendment was intended to avoid a "stop-start approach" to housing delivery and create a pipeline of future development sites.

Under the proposals, Housing would be required to identify land suitable for development and confirm its intentions before the properties were made available for other purposes.

The amendment states that affordable and mixed-tenure housing should be prioritised if the sites were suitable and viable.

Williams said estimates for the number of homes were based on the acreage of the sites and described the range as provisional.

"It's a very broad range at the moment, I think, across all three of these. It may be anywhere between about 70 and 150 homes.

"This amendment gives us a first priority look at the sites and, obviously, if they don't work for us, they don't work for us.

"We actually think they would be extremely good for new accommodation."

The plans have faced scrutiny over their cost.

The Scrutiny Management Committee has questioned whether a central hub represents the best use of public money and whether lower-cost alternatives had been fully explored.

The children's services hub proposal is due to be debated by States members this week.

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