Building on experience and ideas

The ambition is to devise fresh ideas to break up the logjam which has seen the property market stall and hundreds of homes languish on the books of estate agents.

Not content with cutting that particular Gordian knot, the meeting will also examine the island's ongoing failure to build enough new homes.

Six months ago the States had a similar agenda. In the end debate settled on two main questions.

Firstly, if the island keeps missing its strategic housing target of 300 new homes is it worth setting one? And secondly, is there a way to help first-time buyers without artificially inflating prices?

The answer to the first question was 'no' – although, slightly confusingly, while the target did not remain at 300 it is debatable whether it died entirely.

The second question was answered in the time-honoured States' fashion of commissioning yet another report. This one will be an independent, broad-based review of the local market that seeks to assess how to influence supply and demand without sending prices soaring.

The two committees tasked with commissioning the review have to report back by the end of July.

It might be argued then that today's meeting is too early, that it would be better to wait until after the review is published.

But that would be a waste. For the men and women in St James represent a valuable resource. Decades of experience in planning, developing, building and selling are in one room with a genuine desire to find some solutions to a problem with which successive States have struggled.

If anyone understands the property market it should be them.

Yes, they have a strong commercial interest and cannot be described as independent or unbiased. But that does not mean that they cannot contribute Guernsey solutions and fresh ideas which could prove invaluable to any review.

States members of the future would do well to listen.