NEW measures need to be introduced to protect tenants from sub-standard accommodation. Deputy Barry Brehaut said that the Sustainable Guernsey report, which says that in 2005 no housing was found to be unfit, was not a true reflection of the situation.

‘The report is not the best measure of the problems that we have got in Guernsey,’ he said.

The responsibility for closing down a property lies with Environmental Health, but it can only act on a complaint made by a tenant, not by a third party.

Many tenants, he said, were hesitant about reporting their situations.

‘There are a substantial number of properties that are sub-standard and that need to be registered and inspected.

‘I have visited in excess of 40 and I would not live in any of them.

‘If we had a system of registration there should be a minimum standard whereby landlords would have to ensure, for example, that there was a fire blanket in the building and that the property was properly maintained.’

He said that the system could work in a similar way as the one for residential homes with the cost being met by the landlord.

Environmental health and pollution regulation director John Cook said that he recognised that the Sustainable Guernsey report was not as comprehensive as it could be.

‘I think that it only addresses one aspect and perhaps isn’t a wide enough indicator for measuring the overall quality of housing,’ he said.

But he added that Housing was looking to establish a better indicator which would allow more detailed analysis of the island’s housing stock.

He added that during 2005, environmental health officers had responded to a number of complaints by tenants about their accommodation, but had found none of the properties to be inhabitable.

‘A number were found to have defects that required attention by the owners but all of these were able to be remedied without the property being vacated.’

Any decision on the registration and inspection of rented accommodation was not his to make.

‘We have guidelines for tenants about what standards they should be seeing but it’s a political issue as to whether there should be legislation to govern it.’