Competition review to be welcomed
AFTER years of simply nodding its annual report through, it wasn’t a huge surprise that deputies should finally balk at another year of routine acceptance for the work of the Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authority.
For States members themselves have gradually chipped away and undermined the regulator, particularly over its work on electricity regulation, over the years. And so a handful openly questioned: ‘How did we get here?’
From the Office of Utility Regulation to a Channel Island regulator and then back into local hands, if we were starting with a blank sheet of paper for a regulatory model, we might not wish to be where we are now.
The States has ‘lost control’ of the regulator, it was said. But were they ever supposed to have ‘control’?
But then when its latest report on broadband speeds is immediately trashed by the three telcos involved – and really didn’t say that much that people didn’t already know from personal experience, or care that much about – members might think that the timing of a review, just announced by Economic Development, is apposite. Particularly when the GCRA has also put out a plea for more public funding.
Competition’s a good thing. But it doesn’t always work in tiny markets like ours. And if the taxpayer’s paying to manage competition, it’s got to work properly for the public and the island.