Jersey’s new Chief Minister, Senator Ian Gorst, is putting down a marker that if he is to deliver social change including employment over benefits, affordable housing, good healthcare and support for the elderly, that all begins with a healthy economy. He lists five common problems he hears from local businesses:
• The volume of regulation to be complied with;
• Within the GST regime, businesses act as unpaid tax collectors;
• That the States hasn't reduced public expenditure sufficiently; or
• That the States hasn't had to control its costs in the same way as the private sector;
• That the States deliver services which could be provided more efficiently by the private sector.
The root of the problem, and so also the road to the solution, is all about jobs: '...it’s business that creates jobs, not the government...' Fundamentally, Senator Gorst's view is that we must invest in a policy to reduce the current record levels of unemployment, as the cost to the state of Islanders not being employed is the greater danger. That policy will include, in the right context, reduced social security contributions, offering subsidies to employers to take on more staff and using further fiscal stimulus funds for more training and work experience schemes. He poses the following question to the Island's employers:
'What are your pressures, what will it take for you to be more confident to employ people, and for us (the States) to take some of the risk of that employment?'
The next step on recovery road is to bring forward capital projects, in much the same way as the plans to investment in infrastructure (road, rail and broadband) which have recently been announced by the UK Chancellor.
'I support the Gigabit Jersey plan, getting fibre (broadband) to every house, I think there's some ‘I's’ to dot and ‘T's’ to cross before we finally give it the go ahead, but it is an incredibly exciting project...if we can be the first to do that, if we can attract other businesses to use as a test-bed for the latest technology, we should absolutely have our doors open to that'.
Finally, Senator Gorst talks about improving the relationships between business and States departments, and in particular, addressing any perceived blockage in the planning process to allow more private sector development work. He identifies the central role there to be played by the Economic Development Department, as the one which works most closely with businesses.
The one issue outstanding, as it has been for some time, is the size of the public sector, or more specifically, which services should be provided by the public sector, rather than the private or 'third' sectors. It has long been the proverbial nettle which politicians were wise not to grasp, although the first fingers have now been curled around it by Senator Ozouf during the ongoing Comprehensive Spending Review. Senator Gorst uses the phrase, 'business transformation', something which has been writ large in the lexicon of the private sector through the ongoing recession. The logic is that certain services clearly need to be provided; the real issue is around 'how' and 'who by'.
James Filleul Chamber Vice-President
(This article is taken from a full interview with Senator Gorst which appears in the December / January edition of Connect Magazine on our homepage).
It’s testament to the commitment of a locally-owned development company, Le Masuriers Limited, that the approval of J1, their major scheme in the town centre, doesn’t mean their plans for their Bath Street scheme have been put on hold.
Over Christmas, I read up on the business benefits of corporate social responsibility or putting it another way being moral in business (exciting times!).
As you are probably aware, Social Security rules have changed this year for employers of staff earning more than £3,778 per month (equivalent to £45,336 per year).