PROOF, if it were wanted, that this is an Island of the disadvantaged as well as the wealthy comes in the shape of the latest information on social housing.

Demand for affordable homes in the sector exceeds supply to the extent that there are now 522 people on the waiting list. Three years ago there were 240.

The effects of the recession and high rents in the private housing sector have no doubt contributed to this state of affairs – which, we should remember, involves real families as well as abstract statistics. However, it is all too clear that lack of investment in States-owned housing stock and the failure to build new units can also be blamed for the current situation.

The present Housing Minister, Deputy Andrew Green, promises action, but, as he says, instant improvement is impossible. He might like to house each and every one of those on waiting list, but he cannot give what he does not have.

Meanwhile, as far too many people make do with unsuitable, inadequate accommodation, they and all other Islanders are entitled to ask why States policies and the actions of Deputy Green’s predecessor allowed the present deficit to develop.

It is also legitimate to ask questions about another figure which has come to light. What, exactly, has been the scale of neglect leading to a situation in which approaching a third of the Island’s social housing would fail the UK’s Decent Homes Standard?

With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to say that the time for investment in States-owned homes was when the economy was booming. It is, unfortunately, clear that money was channelled in other directions. It is also clear that in the present climate of austerity Deputy Green will not find it easy to secure a share of scarce public resources to stage a root and branch revision of social housing policy, coupled with a programme of urgent action.

Ideally, wealth in this Island would be distributed in such a way that everyone could afford their own property or to pay the private rents that the market demands. Realistically, this position will never be reached, so the safety net of social housing will always be required.

Deputy Green must therefore receive the support and funding that he needs to mend the gaping holes in the net which, in recent years, have been allowed to become so unacceptably wide.