GUERNSEY should be prepared to borrow to finance public services improvements, according to election candidate Wendy Morgan. The wife of Advisory and Finance president Laurie Morgan said: ‘Guernsey is well-known for being prudent and cautious but it is that policy which has led us to the situation we are in now. The roads, sewers, water system and schools are in such a bad condition because people would not spend.

‘I believe that we would be in a better financial position than Jersey even if we had spent that money and we would also have improved public services.’

Mrs Morgan told St Peter Port North voters that inflationary pressures from the construction industry had been overemphasised and she would support borrowing for capital projects if it meant they could be fed-in quicker and would, in the long-term, save money.

Deputy Tony Webber called for restraint.

‘Do we really want to saddle our future generations with national debt?’ he asked.

This stance was reiterated by John Guilbert who said: ‘We have to continue to live within our means. The Guernsey way has always been to have what you can afford but if you can’t afford it, you don’t have it.’

Jack Honeybill was not averse to borrowing if it was securely underwritten.

And Barry Cash was flexible on whether the States should borrow money to fund capital expenditure programmes.

‘It depends on the project and the savings that could be made by borrowing,’ he said.

Public finances was one the hottest topics at last night’s hustings, chaired by John Burley, at Beau Sejour’s Sarnia Hall. More than 200 people attended but one candidate, Phil Capper, did not.

Housing was also a dominant issue and Walter de la Mare asked the 14 candidates what measures they would implement to alleviate the housing problems.

‘The States does not have a good record of dealing with this,’ said Deputy Rhoderick Matthews.

‘Four years ago it was the top issue but now it has not been seen as so important because of problems with the economy. The way to reduce costs and have more housing is by increasing supply and the States have slowly begun to act.’

St Saviour’s resident Mr McManus said that there should be a review of the Cadastre arrangements for public and private renting. He was not keen on government regulation but thought that there may be need for rent regulation in this case.

Mr Guilbert supported more shared equity schemes for first-time buyers and a rent rebate scheme, to be funded from general taxation, to safeguard the poorer people in the rented sector.

Deputies Jean Pritchard and Leon Gallienne also backed more Housing Association, partial ownership and self-build schemes.

Chris Brock said that the problem was the amount of property speculation on the island. ‘Housing market speculation has to be stopped as far as it can be.

‘There has to be legislation to prevent speculation. Many properties are being bought under names that do not represent who truly owns the property. Therefore there can be an influx of flats onto the market, which then lie empty,’ he said.

Deputy Tony Webber said that the problem was the cost of the land; this was the States’ fault because the restrictions in the Rural Area Plan.

‘We would be able to halve the price of plots if we could build in just some of these rural areas,’ he said.

Diane Lewis added her support for the Housing Association and shared equity schemes but was critical of Deputy Webber’s ideas of development in rural areas.

‘We can make more use of existing derelict properties,’ she said.

Most would replace road tax with a petrol tax but there was disagreement over paid parking.

St Peter Port douzenier Peter Wilson said that a petrol tax was fair because it penalised those who drove gas-guzzlers.

Mr Honeybill did not think buses would solve the traffic problem. They were used mostly by pensioners who could travel for free; the buses were too big and had to go on pavements to pass traffic at a time when the police were trying to stop motorists driving on them.

Thomas Reynolds, douzenier Wilson and Mr Cash said that more parking sites were needed around the edge of Town to ease congestion.

Leigh Haines and Deputy Webber opposed paid parking which was supported by Mr Brock and Deputies Pritchard and Matthews.

Traffic committee vice-president Leon Gallienne wanted to set the record straight on what the committee had achieved. He said that the buses were the right size and that special electric ramps for disabled access were not cost-effective. The buses were that size to allow wheelchair access and for parents with children and pushchairs.

The States then passed paid parking but would not set the charge ‘because of vested interests’.

All candidates said that they would also introduce tax relief on childcare if they were elected.

Leigh Haines emphasised that there were many single fathers as well as mothers who had to consider childcare arrangements, which were expensive.