19 December 2025
The Minister for Housing has announced a series of changes to allow more people to apply for social rented housing.
Deputy Sam Mézec has published an update to the 'Roadmap for improving access to social housing in Jersey', setting out the next phase of actions to make social housing more accessible and responsive to Islanders' needs.
The document can be found here: Roadmap for improving access to social housing - addendum.pdf
A key commitment in the roadmap is to “open the door to more Islanders" by lowering the age threshold to eligible applicants without children from 25 to 18. This change, which will take effect in January 2026, will enable younger adults to apply for social housing, ensuring they can benefit from the stability and affordability it offers.
The policy addendum to the roadmap, which was first published two years ago, reflects the progress made since the publication of the original roadmap, including:
- widening eligibility for social housing
- strengthening management of the Affordable Housing Gateway
- promoting awareness of housing options through the Government's Housing Advice Service.
Speaking about the published addendum to the roadmap, Deputy Mézec said: “Not only have we made significant progress against the previous roadmap, but there is a growing supply of new homes to meet demand. Now is the time to further improve opportunities for those looking for affordable, good-quality homes, particularly for younger Islanders who may not see a future in Jersey.
“This next phase of the roadmap reflects our commitment to respond to evolving housing needs and to make social housing more inclusive. Introducing a general needs band will open the door to more Islanders, ensuring that younger adults and households who do not meet existing priority criteria can benefit from the stability and affordability of social housing."
The new policies build on previous changes by the Minister, who in September 2024 granted access to social housing for Islanders aged 25 and over who do not have children. People who have children who wish to apply for social housing can do so from the age of 18. Islanders can also apply at 18 if they have a medical, physical or mental disability or if they are in need of a special type of housing, or require agency support through the Partnership Pathway, managed by Andium Homes.
The roadmap introduces several other important changes:
- Lowering the age threshold for applicants without children from 25 to 18 (from January 2026).
- Introducing a new general needs band to allow households who do not meet priority criteria to access social housing, subject to availability (from January 2026).
- Removing restrictions on hardship cases, allowing those granted Entitled status on hardship grounds to access social housing (immediate).
- Reduce the length of time that an Entitled person has to be resident in Jersey to access social housing from six to three months.
- Annual review of income thresholds to ensure they remain aligned with affordability and cost-of-living changes.
- Quarterly reviews of long-standing applications to ensure timely allocation and identify barriers to accessing housing.
- Targeted review of Band 1 prioritisation, ensuring urgent housing needs are met whilst balancing right-sizing applications to optimise use of housing stock.
The Minister stressed that those facing homelessness or urgent housing needs would remain the highest priority for social rented housing, adding that he wanted to ensure better communication with all applicants throughout their application process so they can access a home that meets their needs as quickly as possible.
In the newly published addendum, Deputy Mézec paid tribute to Andium Homes and other social housing providers for the delivery of more than 1,000 new homes.
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