Guernsey States reports surplus of £63.7m in 2023

The States reports an operational surplus of £10.2m

The States of Guernsey made an overall surplus of £63.7m in 2023, according to its latest set of accounts.

This compares to a deficit of £139.7m which was recorded in 2022.

The increase has been put down to an improvement in investments offsetting the previous losses.

It reported an operational surplus of £10.2m, which means the States brought in more money than it spent.

The Vice President of Policy and Resources, Deputy Heidi Soulsby said: "It's been a good year, in many ways it's expected.

"What we've shown is we can balance the books, and from a day-to-day point of view that's really great, but the capital side of things and in terms of the sustainability of Health and Social Care, that comes out as being an issue within the accounts."

Overspend

The general committee expenditure came in just over budget, with an overspend of £3.4m.

The report highlights that this is mainly due to the Committee for Health and Social Care spending around £4m more than allocated.

That has been put down in the report to "increased cost pressure in staffing, prescriptions and children’s services".

Deputy Soulsby said "we're never going to say that the costs are going to go down, the demand we know is increasing, what we've got to do is manage it".

The Committee for Education Sport and Culture was the only other committee to go over budget, with an overspend of £525,000 in 2023.

Staffing

Pay was the largest expenditure increase, up 8.7% (£24.9m) up on 2022.

Pay awards were the main driver, but it also included an increase of 142 employees working full-time hours.

Deputy Soulsby said the number reflected "the need for agency workers and the demand we have there, but also the impact of people doing overtime and back-dated pay as a result of agreeing pay increases".

Getting more staff, particularly for Health and Social Care is a "core priority for the States now" as well as "getting housing for people so we can get them here and we can fill those posts," Mrs Soulsby added.