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19-21 Broad Street | St Helier Jersey | JE2 4WE
Connétable Mike Jackson Chairman
EH&I Scrutiny Panel
BY EMAIL
23 January 2020
Dear Mike
Re: P.106/2019 Draft Public Health and Safety (Rented Dwellings) (Licensing) (Jersey) Regulations 201-.
Thank you for your letter dated 20 January 2020.
If I could refer you to my answer to question 4 of my letter dated 12 December 2019, more specifically to the income and expenditure forecast provided for in Appendix A.
The projected expenditure for work carried out to enforce the Public Health and Safety (Rented Dwellings) (Jersey) Law 2018 and the associated Order relating to Minimum Standards is £640,960. The projected income is £690,013 and it should be noted that these figures do not involve any cross subsidy and are costs attributed solely to Environmental Health.
In addition, in my response to question 2 I gave the caveat that should further housing work move into the GHE Regulation portfolio from other areas of Government then resources will have to be addressed'.
Furthermore, if I can refer you to my response to your email dated 10 January 2020, in particular: -
I would like to stress that as we don't have a full picture of the rental sector, we can only apply what we do know and include best estimates where we don't.'
It is also worth noting that as time goes on and standards improve, whether it be through new builds coming onto the market, landlords wanting to improve their dwellings to attract larger discounts, improve their investment or the demands from tenants for a better offering – the projected income will decrease.'
Therefore, I believe the proposed charging regime upholds the principle that the licence fee and associated discounts made available will pay for the direct cost of administering this scheme.
This is reinforced in the resource implications statement in the Ministerial Decision MD-PE-2019- 0085 and associated report, in the approval to lodge P.106/2019.
Repeal of the Lodging House Law
In my response to you on 23 December 2019, I advised that the Lodging Houses Law and associated subordinate legislation does not fall under my remit. There are elements within the Law that deal with population matters and it is the intention to repeal the Law only when these matters can be suitably dealt with elsewhere. Therefore, this question should be directed to the Minister for Children and Housing.
Information provisions
Article 4 of the Public Health and Safety (Rented Dwelling) (Jersey) Law 2018 indeed allows the Minister to prepare, issue and revise any Codes of Practice. This is in keeping with most legislation.
The Department has information online and a number of leaflets that are distributed to both tenants and landlords. This includes advice and guidance on condensation in both Portuguese and Polish. Staff also reach out to a number of organisations to provide face-to-face training. This information is and will continue to be subject to review.
I hope the above is satisfactory and if you require anything further please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Deputy John Young Minister for the Environment
D +44 (0)1534 440540 E j.young@gov.je