Social Report

The ‘people’ part of our ESG strategy focuses our targets and goals across our three spheres of influence: The Company, The Supply Chain and The Community and focuses on three pillars of: Health and Wellbeing, Equitable Employment Practices and Vibrant and Inclusive Communities, supporting our primary core commitment in our ESG Strategy ‘Goal 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities’ of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Community Vibrant and Inclusive Communities

Prioritising Placemaking

Placemaking and creating sustainable new communities is at the heart of JDC and the Company’s vision is “To build a better Jersey”. It’s the process of creating well designed and quality places where people want to live, work and play.

JDC’s focus is on transforming public spaces to strengthen the connection between people and the places they share.

The Company has directly invested £3.3m to date in public infrastructure. The Company has delivered 55 car parking spaces at Janvrin School and a new public square at the IFC - Trenton Square, which will be extended, with expected completion in November 2023. The Company has also paid contributions for public transport initiatives.

During the year the Company contributed £425k towards the new skateboard park at Les Quennevais and £730k for road and pedestrian improvements to Midvale Road, making journeys to and from work and school far safer.

Modern Living

An inclusive community must be one in which everyone’s right to shelter and a home is met. The design of our new residential buildings has increased the range of home sizes to ensure more budgets can be accommodated. Whilst JDC has no social housing remit, we do offer a phased deposit payment scheme to assist first time buyers in saving for and paying across deposit funds over the build period, enabling them to secure their home with a £2,000 reservation fee. To date, 35% of all our new residential units have been purchased by First Time Buyers and 117 buyers have been able to access their first home via our deposit payment scheme.

Going forward, the States Assembly has agreed that the Company’s future residential developments will only be sold to owner occupiers - whether that be first time buyers or right-sizers. In addition, the Bridging Island Plan requires a minimum of 15% of new residential units on large developments to be made available via a Shared Equity Scheme to eligible First Time Buyers. We are also investigating incentive schemes to encourage ‘right sizing’.

Community wellbeing

Vibrant and inclusive communities help to ensure everyone’s wellbeing. This year we were delighted to sponsor and help facilitate CI Pride in September, to host the Creative Spaces event at Les Jardins de la Mer and the Weighbridge, to facilitate and help with the organisation of the Corn Riots Festival, following last year’s inauguration, and to sponsor the Puffin Festival for the National Trust in April.

Providing inclusive assets & public realm

The Company continues to maintain the extensive public areas around the Waterfront, which include Les Jardins de La Mer, Marina Gardens, Weighbridge Square and Trenton Square. We try to ensure that activities feature highly on St Helier’s Waterfront, transforming open spaces to bring the community together and promote health and wellbeing.

To date the Company has supported over 200 events on public land within its ownership or administration, including regular events such as The Waterfront Park Run Juniors, the Standard Chartered Jersey Marathon, for which we sponsor the Marathon Mile, The Triathlon, the Christmas lights as well as this year, the Tree Maze at Weighbridge Square and Spiegeltent at Les Jardins de la Mer.