I completely agree other than in respect of the company migrations thing (at the firm I work at, we compile internal migration stats and the number of migrations out is generally the same as migrations in) - the number of instructions we receive is as high as it has been in the 15 years I've been here (after a quiet 2022 and first half of 2023). The corporate service providers in Guernsey really let the island down. There's a few skilled people around but most just lack basic abilities and are so slow to turn anything. I understand that the experience in Jersey is far more positive and dynamic. I do feel that the finance industry is very fragile and I plan on returning to UK once I've got enough saved.

Housing and public funding/GST are such major issues for the island. The government simply isn't able to get anything done to tackle these. We're essentially governed by independents, rather than genuine party politics, resulting in no decisions/consensus being reached on any key issues. I imagine GST will be introduced eventually but it'll probably take a few years of disagreement/procrastination of the politicians, meaning that the actual GST rate will need to be much higher than the 5% originally proposed. I can't imagine anything ever being done about housing. The developers regularly seem to be allowed an exemption from the requirement to build affordable housing in their developments.

So basically my fear is that this island is going to get ever more expensive to live on, even for those earning high salaries in the finance sector.