Island losing key workers due to housing shortage – States chief

Teaching, social work and health services are all suffering as a result of a lack of affordable housing, the chief executive of the States revealed on Friday.

Paul Whitfield also warned that the need to import skilled people would become more pressing given that the local working population is projected to shrink in the coming years.

‘We’ve got a significant issue now on the housing and location for key worker staff in Guernsey – social workers, teachers that we are recruiting,’ said Mr Whitfield when addressing a Guernsey Institute of Directors event yesterday.

‘In fact last week we lost four key positions that would have come into Health because they can’t find accommodation on Guernsey. We all know that the rent picture is really gloomy – it’s full.’

Mr Whitfield said ‘movement’ on population control was needed, because of the projected reduction in the size of the island’s working population, to ensure services could continue to operate and other jobs in the economy are filled.

‘We’re going to need a viable workforce – and it’s not all about just simply high net worth individuals that have come in,’ he said. ‘There’s only so many of our own people that can be skilled to be plumbers, carpenters, etc.’

The need for a viable workforce meant ‘we have to accept there needs to be some movement on the population’.

‘Actually, this doesn’t mean tens of thousands. It’s a few thousand people. We need to make it easier to bring people into the island, in order that we can do some

of these really ambitious projects for this island.’

Deputy Heidi Soulsby, vice-president of Policy & Resources, also spoke at the business event held at the Old Government House Hotel – and addressed the issue of population and affordable housing

after it was raised by a member of the audience.

‘In terms of population, you can either have increased birth rate or you bring in people of working age,’ she said. ‘So you don’t need, thankfully, everybody here [to] have loads and loads of kids.

‘And people can’t afford to have loads and loads of kids and that’s why that’s not happening.’

Affordable housing, and issues such as the cost of a deposit, were critical areas that would be addressed in this political term, said Deputy Soulsby. ‘At last that is now seen as a priority and it’ll be front and centre of the Government Work Plan. That will mean that it will be looked at.’

She stressed the work plan was one of action, and resources and people would be moved around government accordingly.