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Hardly a week goes by when at least one aspect of the States’ property portfolio is in the public eye. Whether is the future Government HQ, redeveloping the South Hill offices, monetizing the Queen’s gift of the foreshore or...please don’t turn the page...Fort (whisper it quietly) Regent.
Taken together the property owned by the Government (on behalf of you and me) is one of Jersey’s key assets; which also means that it rests neatly in two different boxes: one marked “massive opportunities” and the other labelled only “x” containing bits and bobs which the government is most embarrassed about. Now that’s interesting rummage for a Sunday afternoon.
Anyway, depending on who you ask, various buildings falls into one box or the other; but the man charged with emptying them both into a shiny, new self-locking crate labelled “How the ‘best’ was won”, or alternatively “Deeds which won the (property) empire,” is Tim Daniels.
Just as Charlie Parker is charged with reforming our government in terms of culture, structure, process and procedure, Tim Daniels will deliver the physical manifestation of that change in terms of bricks and mortar.
The scale of the task ahead of him, in monetary, cultural and physical terms is massive – you can read how he plans to approach it on page 4.
And that must all be done against the continuing, insidious and boringly sterile backdrop of covid.
Much of our focus has been on shops, restaurants, hotels and bars, and it is fair to say that the hair and beauty sector has felt under-valued. One glance at a recorded Teams meeting from April this year, will show you what an appalling oversight that truly is.
Once we all start to look like peasants from Game of Thrones, you know that the beauty sector is worth is weight in moisturizer, hair trimmers, nail polish and wax. And that’s just me.
In this edition (page 20) Penny Downes sets out how her sector is recovering from lockdown, the precautions they are now taking, and why the future, for them, needs a makeover.
Her argument is that it has taken the covid crisis to really make us understand how valuable personally, socially and economically, their work really is.
Hopefully you are sitting reading this in a local salon, wondering which article to start reading first: if so, just turn the page, and Enjoy Connect.
