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1240/5(3146)
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT
BY DEPUTY R.G. LE HÉRISSIER OF ST. SAVIOUR
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY, 5th DECEMBER 2006
Question
Would the Minister outline what progress, if any, has been made to date in identifying sites for the circa 400 sheltered homes which the Minister for Housing has identified as being urgently required?
Answer
As the States are aware, the Housing Minister has identified an immediate need for around 400 social retirement homes. He and I are working in partnership to respond to the need he has identified.
The Housing Minister and I believe that the Parishes have an important role to play in helping to identify and bring forward sites for Parish retirement schemes, and at our consultation meeting with the Connétable s in September, we asked them to provide me with details of sites, which they consider to be economic and suitable, by the end of December.
Until the parishes have submitted their lists of sites, I cannot be specific about progress. Once I have received the Connétable s' submissions I will be in a position to analyse them from a planning point of view and go back to each Connétable for further discussions. I then propose to take a consolidated proposition to the States, with the full support of the Housing Minister and the respective Connétable s, to rezone the best sites for social-rented retirement housing, and hopefully to make significant in-roads into the requirement for the 400 homes. I have indicated before that I will favour sites that do not impinge on green fields, in particular disused glasshouse sites, and will only bring forward green-field sites as a very last resort.
The imperative is to deliver affordable retirement houses that provide sustainable retirement communities in the Parishes. The objective is that these new retirement houses will be a long-term social and financial asset to the Parishes.
The required number of homes will likely be more precisely defined in a document to be lodged in the very near future by the Housing Minister and is referred to in Planning for Homes 2006', which will be presented to the States on the same day.