St Sampson development drops affordable housing

The owners of a site earmarked for new housing have dropped plans to include affordable housing after the States changed its affordable housing rules.

Pointues Rocques, near Delancey Park in St Sampson, was due to contain 16 affordable properties out of a total of 30 new dwellings.

However, architect PF&A has now resubmitted plans after the States suspended its GP11 rule last year, which required larger housing developments to include a portion of affordable housing.

Alex Whitmore, director of PF&A, said the plans would be otherwise "identical", adding: "All we've done really is taken away any words relating to affordable housing."

Mr Whitmore said the local market properties were "relatively small" and designed for "smaller families" and individuals.

He said the States' GP11 provisions had previously "squeezed the developers' margins" in light of price rises since the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, suspending the rule had been "a very positive step" which meant "the landscape was improving for construction", he said.

Affordable housing is "property that's reserved for certain groups of people who cannot afford to rent or buy property on the private market", according to the States.

People often part-own affordable housing, which reduces the amount they need to borrow on a mortgage, and there are often restrictions on who lives there and who you can sell an affordable house to.

Guernsey introduced GP11 in 2016, which set out how many affordable houses developers needed to include in their plans.

However it was suspended last year after complaints from the building trade that it was preventing building work going ahead.

Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook. Send your story ideas to [email protected].