States cheap homes plan won’t work, says report
Thursday 21st April 2011, 2:57PM BST.
Public Accounts Committee chairman Senator Ben Shenton
A SCHEME which allows Islanders to buy family homes at a discounted price has ‘numerous flaws’ and is not fit for purpose or sustainable, a damning report says.
The Jersey Homebuy scheme, which allows Islanders to buy a three-bedroom house at a discounted price, could trap people in homes with mortgage debts exceeding the value of their property, the States spending watchdog has said.
The Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Senator Ben Shenton, yesterday released a highly critical report on the Homebuy scheme, which was pioneered by Environment Minister Freddie Cohen.
• Full report in Thursday’s JEP
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What a surprise!
Another Freddie Cohen plan that will never work.
Every day a new dream from the CoM that then evaporates in the cold light of day over the following few weeks.
I suspect that the usual silly season that precedes a Jersey election will get going in earnest soon.
If we get lucky the Esplanade Quarter aka the Finance District might be revived as a plan to boost construction and revive the Finance Sector. How it will be paid off will be left suitably vague and after the election it will be stuck back in the cooler with the new hospital, etc, etc.
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The Homebuy scheme forms a cornerstone of Freddie Cohen’s new Island Plan.
The same Island Plan he is so proud to be leaving as his legacy…..before he vacates the post of Planning Minister and leaves a.n.other to reconcile the commercial and social disparities of this plan.
The new Island Plan is a wonderfully complicated instrument that achieves a very simple goal:
The riff-raff (you and I) will be corralled into the built-up areas of St. Helier, St. Saviour and St. Clement, while our lords and masters (Freddie & chums) will have even further protection of their countryside retreats from any new development.
Excellent. Job well done. Thanks Freddie.
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even with the discount , myself and the wife could not afford our states home, the figures did not add up, but for some it was affordable.
i would not like to see this scheme dead and buried, it was a good thing ,imho. i hope the next scheme will help people and famlies get a home.
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We applied for the scheme last year. It really is quite ludicrous – for a start you need to be a States Housing tenant to be eligible – yet you have to come up with 10% of the purchase price. So even at the maximum discount, a modest (ie small) 3 bedroom house which would normally retail at £365k works out at £273k – 10% of which is £27k.
Now, if you have £27k in liquid assets you should not be in States Housing in the first place – £14k is the threshold. So basically it is only for people who have either got families who can lend them the deposit, or are actively defrauding the system in the first place!
Totally ridiculous, but then that’s what you expect from this department, which seems to be answerable to none but themselves. I’m still awaiting the courtesy of an acknowledgement for the email which I sent to them nine days ago – this is utterly unprofessional.
I’d also like to ask, why are States Housing selling off their 3-bedroom houses in the first place, when there is blatantly such a huge demand for them?!
Meanwhile, in other news in this overpopulated, unaffordable island – immigration runs wild…1300+ out of work… this place really is a shambles, and going downhill fast.
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Another “damning” report. I’ve started collecting these.I wonder what term should be used to describe a ‘collector of damning reports into local government’?
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Shame when publishing these reports they don’t ask those that really matter – the people who bought these homes. I did buy one and would never have been able to buy a home otherwise. I am not an idiot I read my contract and took advice from my lawyer & my home has already increased in value. When I eventually sell it – the States will be entitled to a % of the sale price. I will happily hand it over in the hope that the money can be recycled to give someone else the same benefit.
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Quite right lancelot and hats off to Freddie Cohen et al for such an innovative scheme which cost the tax payer NOTHING. A rare thing in this day and age. Reading the article on population in tonights paper it seems that we have two choices. Sit back and wait for the demand for homes to drive the price of a 3 bed house up till the average is £1m (suits me I own one) or encourage the CoM and relevant departments to be innovative, take a few risks and find ways of generating the homes we need. How those people can be encouraged to do so when all they get is nit picking criticism of this kind is beyond me. Looking at the members of the PAC can we be surprised at their view on the matter, not a one of them has ever achieved anything. Those that can do, those that can’t audit !
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Another Cohen mistake?
I think we’ve lost count!
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ELVID (3) ‘you need to be a States Housing tenant to be eligible – yet you have to come up with 10% of the purchase price.’
No you don’t? have you applied for the wrong scheme or are you just another blogger making things up to get yourself heard?
Susepect the rest of what you say is equally disingenuous.
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Martin (4)
‘Sad’ I would think.
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R Duggan (6)
Agree with all you say – apart from the bit about £1m houses
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Elvid 3
Did I hear a door open and someone creep back in?Welcome back “Elvid”, nice name too…you Devil!
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No one believes the homebuy scheme did not cost anything – it was to bail out Dandara who could not sell the houses in St Peter.
Has no one noticed the vast numbers of houses, let alone flats for sale.
No more houses or flats should be sold until the current backlog is sold.
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Much ado about nothing! This has got to be Jersey navel gazing at its worst! People buy a 3 bed house for £260K and the States will apparently make £8million for nil investment and yet we have endless reports about how awful the whole thing was! God Bless Sean Power when he said ‘get a life’. If Jersey could bottle its ‘constant moaning’it would become its number 1 industry! Breckon has never taken on the responsibility of government but prefers to sit on the fence and carp on about those that make decisions! The best thing he could do is ask Swinson to review his performance as a States member over how many years(?). If it was more than half a page I’d eat my hat!
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Lancelot @ 8
Thanks for correcting me. When we applied for the Jersey Homebuy scheme last year, we were told by the Housing dept that you did indeed need to be a States tenant. Well I guess the lady at Housing must have been mistaken then. Perhaps she is the one who is just making things up to get herself heard, and the rest of what she said what equally disingenuous.
I see nothing has changed on these forums – still don’t have the right to voice an opinion without some arrogant fool getting on his high horse.
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Having just perused the States website, it appears I made a dreadful and unforgivable error in my initial post. As Lancelot correctly *although rudely* pointed out, I was getting confused with the “Social Housing Property Plan” which just sells to States tenants. Jersey Homebuy has no such requirement. I really am Ever so sorry to Lancelot and I apologise profusely.
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The Gas Fitter (14)
I agree – man’s a winging numpty
Elvid (16)
Funny how people always say you’re being rude when you don’t agree with their drivel
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Lancelot – Wrong. People say, “you’re being rude” not because you disagree but because of the arrogant rubbish you’ve posted.
Such as (all taken from this page alone):
“drivel”
“Winging numpty”
“sad”
Not to mention all that tripe about ‘blogging to get oneself heard’. These forums are actually to share ideas and thus open debate, something you obviously have no clue about – you’re opinion is all that matters, obviously. But then I don’t particularly care about your self-righteous opinions, and I need neither your approval nor your permission to post here.
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Elvid (18)
Pot and kettle – any comments I’ve made are a good deal less insulting than those you have posted about people who don’t have the right of reply, but then… its all about you isn’t it?
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Lancelot
Actually my comments were about the DEPARTMENT as a whole and also the Homebuy scheme, and thus not directed towards any one person. Yours, however, are.
“Winging numpty”. As you say, pot and kettle.
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