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Government Needs To Accept Responsibility For Affordable Housing Delays Says GSD

The GSD says the Government "cannot be allowed to rely on Brexit and COVID in order to absolve itself from responsibility in this area".

A statement from the GSD follows below:

The record with regard to the delays in the delivery of the affordable housing projects needs to be set straight.  The Government cannot be allowed to rely on Brexit and Covid in order to absolve itself from responsibility in  this area. 

The effects of Brexit and Covid hit us in 2016 and 2020 respectively and the GSD acknowledges the very serious  challenges that these events represented. The suggestion by the Government that the GSD seeks to belittle their  very significant impact is nothing but a crude attempt at turning the tables away from their own failings. 

The facts and chronology tell a different story, however and this is why we continue to hold the Government  responsible. 

The facts are that at the 2015 election, that is, 8 years ago, the GSLP/Liberals had already announced the launch  of Hassan Centenary Terraces and Bob Peliza Mews, promising to deliver within that term of office. They then  repeated the promise in September 2017, this being 15 months after Brexit, and citing completion dates for the  first phase of Hassan Centenary Terraces for February 2020 which was of course, a month before the advent of  the Covid pandemic. The whole development was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020 with the first  phase of Bob Peliza Mews expected to be completed in June 2021.  

In the run up to the October 2019 election, the Government continued to give the impression that everything was  on track and that there were no delays to the completion of these developments by making self-congratulatory  announcements (i) about the number of applications received for Hassans Centenary in February 2019; (ii) about  the sale of flats at Bob Peliza Mews in June 2019; and (iii) then again in July of that year about the sale of flats at  Chatham Views, stating, in relation to this development that it would commence in the last quarter of 2019. All  of these dates were after Brexit, before Covid and clearly used for electoral gain.  

It beggars belief that in January 2020 the Government was still announcing that construction of Hassans  Centenary would begin ‘shortly’ when they had previously promised completion of the first phase by February  2020. This last date was, once again, months before Covid hit. With Chatham Views, construction was expected  to have started in the last quarter of 2019, again months before Covid. 

All the developments are now the subject of substantial delays to the tune of between 3 to 5 years at least, with  phase 2 of Hassan Centenary requiring a reclamation to be done and clearing issues still to be sorted out in  respect of the second phase of Bob Peliza.  

Damon Bossino, the Shadow Minister for Housing said: “The shifting sands regarding completion dates have a  huge impact on peoples’ lives, many of whom have had to put them on hold at personal financial and in some  cases emotional cost and strain. The plight of these individuals has to be attended to with compassion and  flexibility adopted in response to their circumstances. They should not be subjected to a harsh application of the  rules such as with regard to the return of deposits if they want to move on with other plans as a result of the  delays. That is certainly the approach that the GSD would adopt in Government.”

The tax payer will also suffer given that, despite original denials by the Chief Minister, the construction cost of  Hassan Centenary has for now already exceeded £30M and the costs for Bob Peliza and Chatham are on their own  admission expected to come in at significantly higher amounts. This in itself is a further reflection of the  incompetent handling of this matter.  

If all of this were not enough, Phase 1 Hassan Centenary purchasers will also now have to await news as to where  the missing 144 spaces will be located given that these will not be available until completion of phase 2 in – it is  currently expected - May 2025.  

The whole episode is a dog’s dinner of incompetence and mismanagement and the Government has to take  political responsibility, stop fooling people and deal compassionately with those who are finding themselves in  dire circumstances as a result of these significant delays, not of their making.