From Alan Anderson.
CHALLENGED on the lack of accommodation for unqualified workers, Housing Minister Senator Le Main is quoted as saying (JEP 11 August): ‘No one is forcing these people to come and live and work in Jersey.’
That is a facile remark to which one might equally add that no one is forcing the wealthy K-cat or the essential J-cat to come and live (and work) in Jersey.
Does the Housing Minister not recognise that unqualified workers are as essential to Jersey as the J-cats? Without them, the hotel industry would be on its knees. My brother has run his hotel for some 50 years and currently has, as in past years, a wholly unqualified staff.
Although one acknowledges valid reasons for the abolition of the right of realty heirs to grant licences to unqualified persons, the minister’s introduction of that legislation has exacerbated the shortage of unqualified accommodation.
Inevitably there will always be a shortage of accommodation in a buoyant economy, and housing allocation is a difficult balancing act. However, it would be a nice gesture of equity if the unqualified who have been resident for more than five years were offered a chance of qualification so that when a J-cat or K-cat consent is granted, a number (to be decided) of unqualified consents were automatically issued. A lottery would of course be necessary.
Côtes des Rozel,
Mont de Rozel, St Martin.
