Private sector interest in taking over Guernsey's Digital Greenhouse

Wednesday, 2 September 2026 07:35

By Euan Mahy

Economic Development Committee say talks and meetings are taking place with potential new operators.

At the end of August, the Economic Development Committee announced it was looking for a private or voluntary sector body to run the Digital Greenhouse, or it would face closure by December '26.

Set up to foster a niche island tech economy, the Digital Greenhouse has been in operation 10 years.

The States pay £450,000 to support it, but critics see this as government part-subsidising small private enterprise, or sometimes a desk for employees not wishing to work from home.

The Chamber of Commerce see it differently and have come out against any threat of closure.

Chamber says it illustrates its concern over a lack of government support for non-finance start-ups:

"A thriving wider business community is what sustains the finance sector in turn, they are not competing interests, they are interdependent."

It questions the money spent on bolstering Guernsey Finance, which is part States subsidised:

"We are also concerned about how this decision based solely on saving the £450k budget (while) at the same time as this closure, government has found an additional £1 million for Guernsey Finance (taking the total to £3.5million) and created a new senior 'finance concierge.'"

"The Chamber calls on government to urgently set out how the functions currently delivered by the Digital Greenhouse will be maintained, and to commit to a proper, funded mechanism for supporting the whole of Guernsey's business community, not just one part of it."

Economic Development says there is interest in the Digital Greenhouse and talks and meetings are taking place.