St Peter Jersey - Green Zone Housing Inquiry - Concluding addresses - 6 March 2018

This video records the concluding addresses from John Nicholson for the Jersey Planning & Environment Department and Carl Mavity for Andium Homes the applicant.
As always there was no sound system at the St Peter's Parish Hall so the quality of audio is not good.
It seems that our government and Parish departments are incapable of providing adequate audio facilities for such public "hearings"  and the UK Planning Inspector Nigel McGurk must have allowed it to proceed on this inadequate basis.
Presumably he would not have been allowed to do so in the UK....

Following these addresses the parties visited the site of the proposed housing development in fields 632 and 559 just across the road and the Inspector's decision will be issued in due course.

The Inquiry in public commenced at 9.30am on 5 March and concluded at about 4 pm on 6 March 2018.
There were about 20 males and 2 females of the public present besides the parties.

DISABILITY AWARENESS & ACTION for Jersey 2018 - Post 2

This is the second blog posting  looking at Andium Homes "Decent Homes Standards" in Jersey with specific regard to the design of housing accommodation for people with "disabilities."

Sandra kindly agreed to allow this video to be recorded and posted.

Video one looks at the entrance to her flat and the design of the kitchen/living area ;

Video two looks at the bath/shower room, her expenses and other difficulties including safety, condensation and parking provision ;

DISABILITY AWARENESS & ACTION for Jersey 2018 - Post 1

Jersey is supposed to be planning a "Disability Strategy" which will include anti- discrimination laws specific to disability and to ratify the appropriate UN convention.

If such proposals are ever to be implemented must be very doubtful because the whole topic of "disability" is not adequately understood, supported or funded in Jersey.

When I post blogs on the subject there is usually very little interest which is odd since up to 30,000 people in Jersey are calculated to be directly or indirectly affected by disability.

So this year, I have decided to probe the whole subject more resolutely.
I note that Guernsey has very active campaigning and some very well organised lobbying and some States members in that Island take the matter seriously. Yet I note too that although Guernsey has officially adopted a "strategy" its implementation is delayed through lack of funding.

There is a great deal to be done and I have started with a look at some of the so called "social housing" provided by Andium Homes in Jersey.

Andium manages about 3,500 units of housing accommodation on behalf of the public and is supposed to achieve basic minimum standards - aka "Decent Homes Standards."
These are standards borrowed from the UK and are far from perfect as the Grenfell Tower tragedy has demonstrated. But of course Andium only administers a small part of the entire housing stock in Jersey and the "private sector" needs to be looked at critically too.

This  initial two part video looks at the problem of providing housing which is suitable for the tenant. Very often - as in this example - the property has been altered to suit the needs of a particular "disabled" person but is not suitable for use by others.
Universal Design standards are not easy to achieve. One design does not "fit all."

Video one looks at a bathroom/shower room as built.

Video two looks at the kitchen in the same flat.

ANDIUM HOMES - rents still going up even when the lifts do not...aspects of Jersey "social housing" ....

This is a picture of the Lifts at Ground Floor level in a Le Marais High Rise block now administered by ANDIUM HOMES with a UK based Chairman who takes £40,000  for just 30 hours work per annum.
There are others on the  board who takes similarly inflated payments for very few hours too...

Only one of the two lifts here is currently working.

As we all know, ANDIUM have taken over the so called "social housing"  portfolio from the States Housing Department and plan to turn this into a money generating asset as part of the Ozouf Master Plan with the one dominant objective of USER PAYS....all rents are being increased across the board to achieve 90% parity with "Private sector" rents although we all know that there can be no such parity...

These lifts are essential in a high-rise building of 14 floors and it is inevitable that they will be out of action briefly on occasions for repair etc.

However, due to long term lack of maintenance under the late Housing Department, the lifts are now undergoing major rebuilds over several months.

Here the "odd floors" lift has been sealed off for about two months and is not now expected to be back in service until 8 September.
The "even floors" lift is therefore having to carry all passenger and goods traffic until it too is taken out of service for repairs which will probably take several months too.

Obviously this activity causes  inconvenience to residents - especially those with disabilities or their disabled visitors who are currently forced to use the stairs if their floor is an "odd " one.

Deliveries  and removals of large items of furniture have also been disrupted... YET... ANDIUM have just announced a 2.35% increase in rents for the flats at Le Marais (and presumably other properties in its care) from 6 October.
Service charges are also being increased  (heating, hot water and water) in line with utility company rises.

It seems that the interruption of lifts provision is not considered a SERVICE by ANDIUM .

Would a private landlord be able to increase rents in such circumstances? Does inconvenience to tenants have no price?

In theory, Jersey still has a Housing Minister in Deputy Green - but he has already declared his plan to become a Senator and seeks the Health Department Ministry after the election.

It is very likely that the Housing Ministry will be scrapped in the near future too (and absorbed into the Population office under the CM) with ANDIUM being given almost total control over the 3,500 "publicly owned" social housing units of accommodation entrusted to it...