States report £44m annual deficit in core services

The States of Guernsey's financial position remains "parlous", with a £44m shortfall in core services in 2024, according to Policy and Resources (P&R) President Lyndon Trott.

This comprised of a £9m deficit in General Revenue, £13m in Social Security Funds and £22m in non-infrastructure project spends, such as IT transformation, elements of the revenue service programme and electronic patient records.

Deputy Trott gave the update ahead of the General Election, with the total underlying structural annual deficit for 2024 said to be around £56m.

"In October when we published our 2025 Budget proposals I described the state of public finances as parlous and that remains the case," he said.

He said the States "cannot continue to rely on reserves built up in the past to fund the services of today and tomorrow".

Deputy Trott said the new Assembly needed to "immediately focus its attention on the issue of improving public finances" adding "I cannot stress enough how important that is to the long-term prosperity of the island".

Deputy Heidi Soulsby, Vice President of the Policy and Resources Committee, said the message was that "we are not raising enough through taxes to fund the services our community relies on".

"The decision for the next States will not be whether something needs to be done, but what should be done to balance the books," she said.

She said the value of investments was important, as was the financial performance of commercial entities under the wider States of Guernsey group, "but they don't impact the amount of money we have available to deliver public services and invest in much-needed infrastructure".

"The bottom line is we had a significant deficit in General Revenue last year," she added.

Deputy Soulsby said the work the States did earlier in the year "shows a looming need to invest in essential infrastructure projects with funds to pay for only a fraction of that".

News of the deficit came as the States of Guernsey investments were valued £130m higher at the end of 2024 than the previous year.

A spokesperson said this did not mean that the public purse received £130m in 2024, but rather their value had increased by 31 December 2024.

The 2024 States of Guernsey s were set to be published on 23 June.

In March, Deputy Trott said the provisional General Revenue results for 2024 gave a revenue deficit of £9m, which was a shortfall of £21m against the budget.

A States spokesperson said the 2024 s were the first to be fully compliant with International Public Sector ing Standards and to be given a "true and fair" view by the auditors.

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