Govt to announce new affordable housing plans today

The Gibraltar Government is set to announce that work will “almost immediately” begin on another new affordable housing development on the site of Westside School.

The new development will provide 218 flats in a mix of one-bedroom, three-bedroom and four-Bedroom configurations. Within this total, there will also be 36 flats for the elderly.

In the next few weeks, the clearance of the sites currently occupied by Westside School, Governors Meadow First School and Bishop Fitzgerald Middle School will commence, so as to allow the construction of the new affordable homes and new schools.

As has already been announced, pupils and staff at Bishop Fitzgerald will move temporarily to St Anne’s School whilst everyone at Governors Meadow will go to the current Bayside School premises.

After just a year in their temporary homes, these two schools will move into their brand new buildings alongside the new affordable housing estate.

More details will be given at a press conference today to be attended by the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and the Minister for Housing.

Plans to construct an affordable housing development on this site had been outlined previously by the Government.

But the proposals come just days after the Government unveiled a new development plan outlining the decision to ‘freeze’ further works on selected government plots and create open spaces.

In line with this the Government has taken the policy decision to freeze development in certain plots of Government land, namely the Queen’s Cinema, the Queen’s Hotel, Bayside School, St Anne’s School, the Rooke and the old Yacht Club sites.