WE have understood for some time that it is no longer States policy to set specific limits on the Island’s population.

To do so, we have been told, would be unrealistic and futile because limits pay no heed to the economy’s need for manpower and can send out the message that we are discouraging new enterprise.

As an alternative to line-in-the-sand limits, the Council of Ministers has consistently promoted a set of controls based on a registration system and access to employment and accommodation to refine what in the past has been achieved through housing law.

Such controls give rise to two vital questions: how effective can they be, and will there be the determination to employ them?

It is clear from the latest population figures, which were published earlier this week, that immigration has recently been allowed to charge ahead at an unsustainable level. Statistics show that at the end of last year there were 90,800 residents in the Island – 1,400 more than at the end of 2006. At this rate, pressures on infrastructure, services and the environment will very quickly become intolerable.

Ministers will counter this by asserting that the past couple of years, which saw exceptional growth in the finance industry, were atypical and that immigration rates averaged for a longer period are entirely acceptable. Up to a point this may be true, but we must return to those questions about the probable effectiveness of controls and the likelihood of their being employed firmly and in timely fashion.

The dangerous truth is that our politicians will, for the foreseeable future, be torn between two conflicting sets of goals. On the one hand they will be rightly concerned about the very real perils of excessive population growth. On the other they will be conscious that finance is the overwhelmingly dominant force in our economy and that to deny its demand for new staff to achieve growth is a very risky business indeed.

With these issues in mind, what we now require more than ever before is leaders who are sage and skilful enough to strike a balance between economic necessity and the limits of what an insular community of 45 square miles can legitimately provide. Those leaders must also have the courage and confidence to say that unrestrained growth is simply not an option and that the brakes will be put on with vigour and alacrity when it is clear that they are needed.