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Infrastructure WILL be considered as population grows

Infrastructure WILL be considered as population grows

Thursday 20 October 2022

Infrastructure WILL be considered as population grows

Thursday 20 October 2022


Guernsey's critical infrastructure, including the roads, electricity and water supplies, will have to be considered alongside any future plans to grow the island's population.

This clause has been added to the proposals from the Committee for Home Affairs which wants to grow the population through inward net migration of 300 per year.

Home Affairs is this week asking the States to back its proposal for higher levels of inward migration over the next 30 years by making it easier for people to move to the island for work.

The Committee estimates that its proposals would maintain the working-age population at around 31,000 and increase the total size of the population by approximately 4,000 to around 68,000 by the year 2051.

The Committee's President, Deputy Rob Prow is leading the debate, which has entered its second day.

Deputy Rob Prow

Pictured: Deputy Rob Prow is leading the States debate on Home Affairs proposals for managing the island's population.

Yesterday the Environment and Infrastructure Committee President successfully asked for her team to be included in future work on growing the island's population.

Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez said that E&I should be involved in the work "necessary to assess the level of investment and/or resources that will be necessary for the States or States-owned trading asserts to invest in infrastructure (including but not limited to road, electricity and water infrastructure) to support the strategic population objective".

This was support by a majority of States members meaning E&I will now have to report its findings back to the States by the second quarter of next year, based on what the final decision of the States is this week.

E&I had previously said that plans to grow the island's population by +300 people per year through net inward migration will require "a significant amount of development just in terms of housing and its supporting infrastructure".

lindsay_de_sausmarez.jpg

Pictured: Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez.

There are already work streams in place to monitor how certain areas of infrastructure are managing with the population as it currently is, and when it grows - including the States Strategic Housing Indicator which keeps a check on the number and type of houses available.

E&I warned that "other infrastructure requirements to support this level of development are likely to be significant" and that the committee wanted work undertaken to "better assess the resources that will likely be required to enable the States to effectively plan for the strategic population objective, and to resource that work accordingly".

The amendment has seen proposition 4a inserted into the policy letter. 

The debate on the population plans are ongoing. There are a number of amendments to be debated alongside the main proposals - they can all be read HERE.

Read more...

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Home Affairs plan for more immigration to boost workforce 

Highest number of over 65s since records began

Population review to consider "changing economic needs" after covid

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