Even CM needs clarity
WE LISTENED with interest to the interview with Deputy Peter Harwood on BBC local radio concerning the ongoing debate on changes to the population regime.
While pleased he is responding to islanders' concerns, we hope he will act to address what many see as serious deficiencies in the Policy Council's proposals.
Although he was clearly trying to clarify a number of issues currently being widely discussed, he unfortunately made what appeared to be a number of errors in his interview. These, sadly, if left unchallenged, will only serve to create more confusion, not less.
In his opening remarks, he stated that the rights of local residents would not be affected by the changes to the population rules. When challenged over the proposal to increase the qualifying period for children born to local families from 10 to 14 years before achieving residency, he then accepted that this was a fundamental change and local children would indeed have to wait longer for local status.
His response to claims by the interviewer that local residents would find it even harder to gain a foothold on the housing ladder as a result of proposals to free up access to the local housing stock, was to suggest that the answer was for more help to be given to first-time buyers.
He seems to have forgotten that the only group who will receive such help as a consequence of the new population regime will be those moving to the island. Many of these individuals receive rent and mortgage subsidies as part of their employment packages. We are aware of no local residents receiving this help. In this situation, perhaps Deputy Harwood might explain how the resident population is not being disadvantaged, as was stated by the BBC interviewer.
The island already has an ongoing housing crisis, mainly due to shortage of available land. Given that the Policy Council accepts that the proposed changes to the population regime will result in an increase in the resident population, perhaps those supporting these proposals will explain where all the new arrivals are going to be accommodated if it is not to be by displacing existing islanders.
Instead of 'sound-bite' radio interviews, we call on the Policy Council to publish not just a line by line explanation of their proposals, but details of how they expect the changes to affect the rights and privileges of all residents. They might find this a more effective means of allaying islanders' legitimate concerns over what the new regime will mean to them and their families.
We were delighted to hear that Deputy Burford has now joined growing calls for this to happen, having ourselves first called for such information to be circulated in our open letter published in the Guernsey Press on 12 October.
GLORIA DUDLEY-OWEN AND GRAHAM GUILLE.