Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer has been accused of not knowing how his department decides on allocating emergency housing.

During what could only be described as an increasingly confusing exchange in the House of Keys, over the criteria for emergency housing allocation, Mr Harmer at one point admitted he had been ’confused’ over whether that criteria had ever been changed.

And he was also challenged over comments that discretionary powers had never been used to allocate emergency housing to someone not already on the waiting list.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) asked: ’Does his department have the data on how discretion and waivers were used by local authorities in the last five years, as I have previously asked? Or does he not have this information?

Clarity

’If he does not have the information how can he make a statement to the effect that he knows how these particular criteria have been used as a way of general practice?’

He added: ’I would like some clarity on exactly what the department knows and what the department does not know, because really it seems the Minister does not know what his department knows and what his department does not know.’

The Minister quipped: ’I know what the department doesn’t know!"

He insisted that guidance and operational procedures have not changed but added: ’I understand why he is confused by it because it confused me when I looked at it the first time, and it is not relating to qualification.

’Qualification has always been the same and it is based on financial need and 10 years’ residency. It is as simple as that.’

Priority and allocation on the waiting list was based on a number of criteria based on ’housing needs’ and that criteria was now ’much better’.

The exchange actually related to an answer given by Mr Harmer in Tynwald last month on whether a person with an emergency housing need could be placed on the housing waiting list under the latest policy.

However, in the Keys on Tuesday, Mr Harmer said: ’The new strategy document does not contain discretionary criteria for emergency acceptance on to public sector housing waiting lists but does allow for the awarding of extra points to eligible applicants already on the list who are in urgent housing need.’

Someone who does not meet the criteria to be on the housing waiting list cannot be added to it in an emergency situation.

Mr Hooper said that was a ’180-degree flip’ on his answer in Tynwald last month, which suggested a discretionary emergency allocation still existed.

But the minister insisted: ’The discretionary emergency criteria referred to in the previous policy document were not used for placing people on to housing waiting lists. Instead, they were used to determine the housing priority for those already eligible for public sector housing.’

Chief Minister Howard Quayle said: ’The policy in 2019 reflects the way in which allocations have operated after the implementation of the criteria since 2002 - so it is business as usual.’