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QUESTION TO BE ASKED OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE HOUSING COMMITTEE ON TUESDAY, 21st JANUARY 2003 BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER
Question
The report accompanying the Housing Committee's Strategic Policy Report (P.2/2002), paragraph. 3.1.1 (vi) - monitoring the effects of policy - states that other information such as the price of homes, for sale and rent, should also be recorded accurately and on a regular basis' (to help guide policy).
Would the President inform members what steps have been taken to monitor the effects of his policies on the level of rentals in the private sector?
Answer
Although a house price index has been published regularly by the Policy and Resources Department it is based only on a particular type of property, a post-war three bedroom house or bungalow, and may not reflect price movements in other parts of the market. The Housing Department is currently liaising with the Policy and Resources Department over how best to gather and record information on the price of a fuller range of homes for both sale and rent.
Information on rent levels and size and type of dwellings in respect of private sector rental agreements is now being recorded by the Housing Department and some figures on the range of rents chargeable for different size dwellings during 2002 should be available soon. In addition, figures showing the average gross rents chargeable for dwellings occupied by claimants under the Private Sector Rent Rebate Scheme will be extracted by a new computer programme, which is currently being developed and which will also cover 2002.
While the first sets of figures produced will be of interest they will not be able to demonstrate clearly what effect the Committee's policies may have had on private sector rentals. Nevertheless the steps outlined above should begin to provide an historical record of prices and price movements in the private rental sector which, in the future, will help the Committee to gauge the effects of its policies.