THE torrent of housing licence requests for finance professionals will not affect the way applications from other industries are dealt with. A Housing Department spokesman said that it did not operate a quota system.

‘If the number of licences issued to the finance sector were to rise steeply, this would not mean that other industries would lose out. Every application is considered on its merits,’ he said.

He added that any proposal to introduce a cap would not be a matter for his department.

However, the most probable factor impacting on the number in issue would be the total population, he said.

‘Any restriction on housing licences would no doubt be driven by concerns about population, all aspects of which are currently being looked at by the Policy Council’s review group as part of its review of the States’ strategic population policy.’

The majority of essential employment-related licences were issued for a maximum of five years in accordance with the States’ population objective, he said.

Peter Niven, chief executive of GuernseyFinance, said that the increase in applications was caused by the growth of the industry.

He added that it was good for business and also good for the island’s tax authorities.

‘We need to get the right people into the right places to cope with the influx of business, particularly in relation to the fund sector,’ he said.

‘Generally we are looking at people who have specific experience in high-level positions.

‘This will be particularly helpful post-2008 because they will be the people putting the tax into the exchequer.’

Mr Niven considered that the current process was working adequately but felt more could be done to make people aware of the areas in which there were shortages.

‘As far as I’m concerned we don’t put stupid requests up for housing licences – it’s where they’re generally needed.’

It was announced on Thursday that 67 essential licences had been issued for the sector in the year to March 2005.

Provisional figures for the period to March this year show an increase to 122.