The States has done everything it can to stimulate housing development, with outside challenges continuing to set the pace according to the Chief Minister.

Speaking at the Chamber of Commerce lunch on Friday, Deputy Lyndon Trott shared his concerns over the lack of new houses being built in the island, along with his views on why it is such a slow process.

He said it was not the States fault that the long-awaited large scale development of new residential units at Leale’s Yard is facing further delays.

He also said that removing GP11 from planning policies – to encourage private developments – hasn’t had the desired effect.

The DPA recently published its latest review of the IDP with new proposals for development sites.

When asked if it is time for Guernsey to acknowledge that we have a housing crisis and if the States should be taking control of the situation, he said we’ve had a housing crisis for a while already but reiterated that the private sector is responsible for many of the development delays and government can’t interfere.

“We’re doing our best but government is a facilitator,” said Deputy Trott. “Government shouldn’t be expected to be a provider, it should make the environment within its powers as easy for business as possible and I believe we’ve tried our hardest to do that in 2024.”

In describing some of the challenges with a firm hold on Guernsey’s housing crisis, Deputy Trott said they are not new issues.

“There are factors outside of Guernsey that are a genuine challenge, and that has been the case since the days of covid,” he explained.

“The Ukraine war initially caused very significant blockages in the supply of materials, and that is loosening but not particularly quickly, and there are also aspects around global inflation which came around as a consequence of that.”

The Chamber of Commerce lunch was held at the OGH on Friday.

Deputy Trott also referenced the high cost of housing, as well as the construction costs, when answering questions posed by Chamber member James Ede-golightly and members of the audience.

He warned against wishing for a sudden downturn though.

“So house building costs have risen, however, there was some news out of Jersey (this week) that showed the average house price in Jersey has fallen by a staggering 8%. Now that is too aggressive. If that fall was compounded quarter on quarter, that would become a problem for many in Jersey.

“That said, we want our affordability to come down because it is absurd to see for someone on average earnings in Guernsey, the cost of an average house is 14 times that. That’s lubricous. The OECD believes it should be closed to 5 times, 6 times at a push, which is how it was when I was a much younger person.”