The Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authority (GCRA) carried out this market study at the request of the Committee to examine whether concrete and aggregate prices in Guernsey are higher than they should be, and whether competition law concerns arise. This FAQ explains what the report found, why prices in Guernsey differ from larger jurisdictions, and what the findings mean for builders, taxpayers, States Members and the wider public. It also sets out what action may be possible going forward, and why some solutions lie in policy reform rather than legal enforcement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s this report about?
This GCRA report looks at whether concrete and aggregate prices in Guernsey are too high and whether anything unusual or unfair is going on in this market.
Why did the Committee ask for this study?
The Committee were worried that the price of concrete and aggregates in Guernsey were too high. Expensive building materials can push up housing costs, make construction projects more expensive and slow down development. And if government building projects are too expensive, this hits the Guernsey taxpayer too.
Did the GCRA find a problem here?
The report confirms that concrete prices in Guernsey are higher than in the UK. But high prices on their own don’t mean that anyone has broken the competition law. There could be structural reasons for Guernsey prices being higher than UK prices. For example, everything has to be shipped into Guernsey, labour costs are higher and the Guernsey market is really small. The question is whether anything can be done to improve things, despite these structural problems.
So, is the GCRA saying everything is fine?
No. We found that the reasons for the high prices are likely to be structural and not down to anti-competitive behaviour. But it’s clear that these structural factors are leading to market outcomes that are bad for consumers. Expensive building materials could mean higher housing costs, public projects costing more, with a knock-on effect for taxpayers, and even developments getting delayed or cancelled. So action is required but the solution will lie not in legal enforcement but rather in policy and market-shaping measures.