Richard Digard: How to be a happy islander

Well, that’s the easy bit out of the way. Voting, I mean. But what you’ve actually managed to create with all that effort, poring over the ‘manifesto of death’ booklet and polling from 82 candidates, won’t really become clear for another couple of weeks when the president of Policy & Resources is chosen by his or her fellow deputies on 1 July.

And given some of the names being mentioned, that should give a pretty clear steer on what sort of a States this Assembly will settle down to become. In turn, the other committee presidents should be in place by the end of that week and the scene will be set for the next four years.

But what we can say with some certainty today is that this new States will be a disappointment. It will let down considerable numbers of islanders and fail to get to grips with the root causes of what makes life here so miserable for thousands.

Before you recoil at that statement, let me explain. The disappointment that is certain to follow the election is no reflection – at this early stage at least – on the new members. It is simply an acknowledgement that the task ahead of them is too huge and too difficult to tackle in four years, no matter how diligently deputies approach it.

And we’re not simply talking about the economy and public finances, although introducing GST in whatever way will seriously anger a lot of islanders and voters. Instead, we’re looking at something far more deep-rooted and which Guernsey has historically struggled to accept – the level of hardship that exists here.

The States reluctantly agreed to look into relative poverty more than two decades ago, which led to the Townsend Report revealing in 2001 that more than 40% of single pensioners were suffering from relative poverty. While some work has been done to ameliorate that, the overall situation has, if anything, deteriorated.

I say that as a result of the landmark Guernsey Quality Of Life Report 2025 commissioned by the Guernsey Community Foundation, which asked a simple question: What’s living in Guernsey really like? The answer for far too many is, bad. And that’s affecting, give or take, around 20,000 islanders.

Before we get into the details, I know that many of you will already be disagreeing that life here can be anything other than wonderful. But that, too, is explained by the detailed findings of the foundation. Because it’s based on money.

Like it or not, Guernsey is a deeply divided community. If you have a few quid, it’s a great place to be. If not… well, it’s pretty grim and can actually shorten your life.

As Jim Roberts, the foundation’s CEO puts it: ‘Taken as a whole, the report reveals the sheer extent to which your financial situation affects your life – from your happiness to your life expectancy, your stress levels to your sense of belonging. Work-life balance, mental health, loneliness, experience of public services, hope for the future – in Guernsey, virtually everything is tied to your ability to make ends meet.’

That’s why around 3,000 islanders say they ‘often’ have to go without essentials like food and heating and a quarter of the island has no money for luxuries. Nearly a fifth are unhappy with their lives and again that’s down to money (64%), their housing situation (41%), and their own health (35%).

Inadequate accommodation, lack of space, cold and damp affect many, with a significant number (4% in each case) saying they have no access to a fridge or an oven. Look at the least well-off and a little under 15% have no fridge or washing machine.

Something most of us would consider as an essential – a computer or tablet – are absent for around half of those on the lowest incomes and nearly 30% of those in what the report calls low financial position. Just over half don’t have access to a smart phone.

Look at housing and cold, damp, mould and poor insulation run across most income groups and dissatisfaction with accommodation is widespread, even in the best-off group. For this sector, however, the biggest complaint is the house being too big, the garden too large or being too far from amenities.

Across the piece, it’s all about money. Or the lack of it. Which is why 71% say they are worried about affording their costs in the next 12 months. Their top worry is savings (35%); 46% say that cost has prevented or delayed them from using health services, and 9% said they could not afford an unexpected but necessary bill of £100.

More than half have sought additional financing outside their normal income to help pay for their living expenses in the past 12 months (52%), including 19% who took out a personal loan to meet day-to-day costs.

Read the research (and I do recommend doing so) and it’s a deeply depressing document and a dispassionate indictment of how we and government have allowed Guernsey to become divided on the basis of income. The root, of course, is housing and the cost of it.

But much of what the States does makes life worse for those it should be helping. The ‘savings’ committees made by passing on costs to users has made life worse for those it most needs to help and explain the protests at the latest increases from Guernsey Electricity. Its two-tier charging means the least well-off can’t meaningfully save by using less.

Sir Richard Collas, the former Bailiff and now chair of the foundation, made a telling point in the report’s introduction. ‘The States and various public bodies periodically publish statistics and surveys, but until now there has never been an attempt to bring all of this information together to tell a story about what it’s actually like to live here.’

Happily, the foundation has now done just that and it makes for very uncomfortable reading. Especially, I should say, for all those who’ve had responsibility for setting the direction of the island.

My comments are based on the statistical analysis of the survey it carried out. Read its own report based on them and there are some other reveals: ‘Only 13% of the richest households are “very dissatisfied” with housing. For the poorest households, this jumps to 66%.’

Elsewhere, it shows that a staggering 79% of us are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with off-island transport (Aurigny!), 65% with housing, 50% with community care, 46% with secondary education and 34% with post-16 education.

These are all core matters for ‘the States’, and you’ve just elected a new one. So the question is, will it be any better than the last? Will it do anything material to improve the lives of so many (43%) who are less satisfied with their lives than they were five years ago?

The answer, of course, is no, and for the very reason identified by Sir Richard Collas. The States rarely acts in the round. Its silo committee system and an electoral approach that’s (largely) based on voting for 38 independent manifestos means the least well-off are under-represented and under-recognised.

The Guernsey Community Foundation’s landmark report has indeed laid bare what it’s like living here for far too many islanders. As a minimum, this new States needs to set out how it intends to respond, and over what timescale, to its damning findings.