End this prison sentence

Tuesday 13th January 2009, 3:00PM GMT.

From the Rev Chris White.
IT strikes me as odd that we make people wait 12 years before they can escape living every day in one small room for which some pay £500 per month.

What kind of a prison sentence is this when hardworking people who are contributing to Jersey society are treated as second-class citizens?

Deputy Sean Power needs to tell us more about the internal investigation which gives an economic argument for keeping people in overpriced flats while denying them freedom to use their incomes for longer-term security.

I support the view of Senator Terry Le Main who is giving hope to people by reducing the quallies limit to ten years. The true cost of of a 12-year policy damages quality of life in an island scarred by the frustration of waiting.

I hope that when we read the detailed report in February about the implications of reducing the limit, we will make a compassionate decision and not a dispassionate economic one.
1 Blenheim Avenue,
St Saviour.

1
Fred

January 14, 2009 at 1:30 pm

Housing qualifications are a red herring to the cost argument. Surely you do not think that once you are handed the “precious” piece of paper, graciously granting you the right to live in habitable accommodation, one somehow is able to afford the extortionate prices that are charged on regulated accommodation.

May be the case if you’re single, or dual income and no kids. But for anyone who has kids, and a single income (because the financial benefits of working are outweighed by the exhorbitant costs of childcare in Jersey), they can forget it.

For people like me housing qualifications were not worth the paper they were written on. The right to buy property in jersey had as much realistic value to me as the right to buy some prime real estate on Mars.

I’m not sure why the states don’t just come out and admit it publically that their policy is that they want local families off the island unless they all work (to be fair, I assume they would wait until the kids can walk before sending them up the chimneys).

Well, Jersey’s loss, our new country’s gain I guess.

Report abuse
2
JULIE

January 14, 2009 at 2:43 pm

You are right Fred- I cannot understand how or why people imagine that those who may gain their quallies a bit sooner can actually afford to buy anywhere or rent anything decent.A friend of mine pays almost a thousand pounds a month (she has quallies as does her husband)for a very damp flat to which the landlord’s answer is that they should leave the windows open!!They are intending to leave Jersey in the near future.

Report abuse
3
Mark G

January 15, 2009 at 1:35 pm

Agree with Fred and Julie

No matter what the States do about quals it does not sort out the fact that alot of property is purchased by outside forces to rent to the private sector.

This has kept the housing prices over inflated for years.

Report abuse