THE States debate on the new Island Plan, which began this week and still has a lot of ground to cover, is dealing with an impressive range of issues, but it has already seen the acceptance of an amendment which will be of great relevance to the many Islanders eager to put a first foot on the housing ladder.

Thanks to Deputy John Le Fondré, planning rules will be altered to specify minimum standards for the size of flats and the quality of their sound insulation.
Many people will now accept that the era when every young couple could expect to buy a house with three bedrooms, a garage and a garden as a first home is over. Accommodation in apartments of one sort or another, many of them in built-up parts of the Island, is now the order of the day. This amounts to a compromise, but it is one which many are ready to accept.

Unfortunately, as developers have attempted to meet demand by converting old properties or building new blocks of flats, cramming in as many units as possible is a strategy that has been used too often. It is easy to appreciate why developers want to maximise the number of units on a given site to maximise their return on investment, but it is only reasonable that there should be a limit to what is acceptable.

Some would say that market forces should dominate in this area, reasoning that flats which are too cramped and have paper-thin walls will simply fail to sell. That view, however, probably underestimates just how desperate some Islanders are to own a home of almost any sort.

It was, therefore, entirely appropriate for Deputy Le Fondré to encourage government intervention on this matter. Moreover, the level of support that he received from his colleagues in the House is indicative that the change in the law was, in fact, overdue.

Some developers might instinctively resent the introduction of the new rules, but surely only the hardest of hearts would deliberately build poor structures and sell them at the high prices that the market currently demands just to turn an easy profit. Enlightened developers are more likely to welcome a situation in which there is a level playing field of standards to ensure that only homes fit for purpose can be built by those in the Island’s construction sector.