Leale's Yard project continuing despite modular housing setback

The developers behind plans for more than 300 new homes at Leale's Yard have said they are "committed" to the project despite another setback.

Omnibus had started working with Top Hat, a modular housing company, but the partner firm last week announced it was winding down that side of its business.

It is the second modular housing company Omnibus and the Channel Island Co-Op have worked with, after Ilke Homes, which was put up for sale in 2023.

Discussions are now underway between the developers and the contractors behind a development called The Limes, in Jersey, to use some of the methods employed there at Leale's Yard.

According to Omnibus, The Limes is a large multi-unit project with similarities to Leale's Yard.

A spokesman for Omnibus said modular housing "would have been new to Guernsey" but the recent history of modular in the UK had not been positive.

"A number of the largest players have been wound up. The Top Hat news is the latest in this vein," he said.

The developers admitted the Top Hat news was a "setback" but that these issues "go with the territory and it's our job as developers to find an alternative".

New plans for the 314 home development were submitted to the Development and Planning Authority earlier this year.

The proposals are expected to go to an open planning meeting before the end of this year, where politicians will have the final say on whether the project should get planning permission.

Policy and Resources (P&R) has been working on a proposal to buy some of the homes at Leale's Yard and is expected to bring a policy letter to the States before the end of the term on the matter.

President of P&R Lyndon Trott warned development may not start at Leale's Yard until at least 2026 as there had been "enormous complications associated with the site".

He had initially said "spades may be in the ground" before the end of 2024.