‘Affordable housing access the biggest issue for our clients’ - Citizens Advice
Access to affordable housing was the subject raised most by clients of Citizens Advice Guernsey last year, according to its latest annual summary.
‘It’s a really big issue,’ said CAG’s deputy CEO Annie Ashmead, pictured, ‘especially when you consider that not everybody comes to us, and we’re taking a snapshot of what is happening in the island.’
There were 178 cases relating to affordable housing dealt with by the service, compared to 98 in 2022. The cases involved 136 individual clients.
The other main issue was consumer rights, with 171 cases handled compared to 123 in 2022.
Mrs Ashmead said that this covered about 100 consumer topics.
The new consumer law came into effect in October last year to give traders and businesses clear standards to follow and protect shoppers from unfair practices.
But despite this the last quarter still saw 21% of the year’s total number of cases.
Mrs Ashmead said CAG now expected the number of consumer enquiries to fall, as the States’ website provided information that people can access, although the new law does not cover private sales.
Within the category there was a big increase in the number of queries about energy supplies and suppliers – up from 43 in 2022 to 103 last year, or a rise of 140%.
Meanwhile, calls about phones, TV, internet, computers and newspapers rose from 44 in 2022 to 72 last year (64% rise), while there was a 39% increase in enquiries related to cars and vehicles, from 113 to 157. The total number of queries includes repeat client contacts.
One area which saw a reduction was debt and money enquiries, which fell from 1,630 in 2022 to 1,168. This fall might have been due to the introduction of the new Lending, Credit and Finance Law which came into effect on 1 July last year.
Nearly 3,500 clients contacted the service with one or more queries during the year. This was 10% fewer than in 2022 but that was due to fewer advisers being available and the service being closed for about 10% of normal opening hours.
‘We’ve been able to remain open for every session this year so far,’ said Mrs Ashmead, but CAG was still looking for new advisers.
‘If anyone would like to volunteer we would love to hear from them,’ she said.
At the start of each year the service selects social policy areas to focus on and this year its research and campaigns team is working on difficulties accessing States departments, guest workers, rising energy costs and mental health.
