'We are driving away young people due to housing'

Rachel Davidson, 36, lives in St Peter Port with her husband, two children and her assistance dog Lily - and works for a local Guernsey charity.

She says of the Guernsey general election's hot topics: "The vast majority of candidates have picked up on housing as an issue and I completely agree."

A recent study found Guernsey's young people did not see a future for themselves in the island.

"We are driving away a lot of our lovely local people, our great young people because they are being completely priced out of the housing market by ridiculously high rents and by lack of availability of affordable housing," Ms Davidson said.

• Guernsey Election 2025: The count

A report previously found that Guernsey only added "one affordable home in two years" to the housing stock.

Rachel thinks an election can "cause tensions" within families, friend groups and also online when discussing political views.

"You go on social media at the moment and there are really personal, nasty insults being flung around, directed at candidates sometimes or sometimes members of the public directing them at each other.

"I've found it hard, for example, finding out that various people who I've been friends with and really thought that they were very supportive then have turned around and made comments about disability rights and women's rights and things that I've felt very passionate about.

"I can't see the person in the same way again when I know that actually they stand against things that I am very passionate about."

Anik Hubert, who is 27 and has recently become a mum says that although Guernsey is "absolutely brilliant, there are things that need to change".

She has picked her candidates based on her priorities of mental health, education, housing and plans to help retain young people in the island.

Ms Hubert is already looking to the future and wants to live in an island with a lower cost of living, where her children can afford to rent or buy a house and work in a job "that they really want to".

"At the minute, there's a lot of people that have left the island because of the economy or they can't come back but they want to."

She also found it important to look at candidates who had signed up to the LGBT rainbow pledge for Liberate.

The charity said it wanted LGBTQ+ people to "feel seen, heard, and valued in Guernsey's political and public life".

"It would be amazing if, in four years' time, I can look back and think I voted for those people and look what they've done."

Anik's feedback for the next election would be to become more digital rather than print a large manifesto booklet for each property in the island.

The 2025 Guernsey general election booklet cost taxpayers £133,026.89 to produce and distribute across the island, according to the States.

"I would have happily just read all of these online and know a lot of other people would have. So I think maybe in four years' time we should only print these upon request.

"I know that there are people that really benefit from having a paper copy and that's great, and they can request one, but I think we could probably cut money in half in four years' time by not printing so many."

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