Rental cost for Lower Lodge, College Hill (FOI)

Request

The rental cost for Jersey Property Holdings (JPH) property Lower Lodge, College Hill, St Helier, has apparently increased significantly over RPI in last 10 years. To ensure tenants are paying a fair amount compared to previous tenants in a JPH property, and given the property is within the grounds of Victoria College, the rental cost per calendar month for the last 10 years is requested.

Response

The information requested is exempt under Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as the information is commercially sensitive.

It should be noted that this property was vacant between January 2012 and August 2015, during which time extensive renovation work was undertaken, therefore comparisons with previous rental values prior to these works being undertaken are not appropriate in this case. 

Article applied

Article 33 - Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Public Interest Test

As Article 33 is a qualified exemption a public interest test should be carried out by the Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) to determine whether the information should be released.

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure 

• It is in the public interest to be made aware of any rental fees received in respect of this property.    

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information 

• The release of the annual rental fees could potentially disadvantage the Government of Jersey’s ability to retain commercial advantage in any future rental negotiations in respect of this site.  

Therefore, it is considered that the likely prejudice to the Government, should this information be released, outweighs the argument that the release is in the public interest.