From Deputy Sean Power, Assistant Housing Minister.
I FEEL I need to refer to a letter from Keith Shaw in the JEP of 5 January that was not factually correct. Mr Shaw refers to the fact that the Housing Department was somehow involved in the Sunshine Hotel site at some time or other.

The Housing Department has never been involved in the acquisition, financing, fencing, demolition or sale of this hotel site. Had the department been involved, I can assure your readers that there would have been housing on this site a long time ago. The responsibility for the Sunshine Hotel site and its disposal rests with the Property Holdings Department, part of the States Treasury Department.

The States itself is the biggest owner of land and buildings in this beautiful Island. As such, the States must make good decisions on behalf of the public of the Island. Sometimes, this is clearly not happening and I find it particularly frustrating to watch the old JCG building sitting as it is, rotting away and being slowly vandalised. It seems some departments suffer from paralysis when it comes to making a decision.

Likewise, I find it equally frustrating that the Lesquende site at Belle Vue on the Quennevais Road is stuck in some sort of battling competition between two States departments, Property Holdings and the Planning Department. The 100-plus two-bedroom flats for the over 55s that should be built on this site are badly needed to free up three and four-bedroom houses for younger families.

My priority, with the minister, is to position the Housing Department in such a way that it will be in a much stronger position to perform far better on behalf of the public, as an independent Arm’s Length Management Organisation or as a housing association.

This will be something that the States will decide on following a consultation period on the Whitehead Report and the recommendations therein. I am very optimistic about this happening. When this does happen, then that same template of efficiency can be applied to other States Departments that do not perform as they should on behalf of the public purse.

This will be one example, if the States approve, of getting one department, in this case the Housing Department, out from under the yoke of this paralysing psyche of corporate States policy, constraining the operating abilities of a department by the centralisation of many functions.

Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves again and again that we live in a small place, not much bigger than a large town by UK and Irish standards. There is a propensity within the States system to complicate many things to a point approaching absurdity.

I like the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid.