Covid cost Guernsey £84m last year

Wednesday 26 May 2021

The impact of covid on Guernsey's public purse, and airline Aurigny, has been revealed.

The States of Guernsey's 2020 accounts show an overall net impact of £83.9m, which is less than the £99.1m originally forecast in the 2021 budget.

Despite the actual damage being £15.2m less than predicted, it’s still an indicator of how devastating the pandemic has been for the island's bank balance.

This figure in the 2020 accounts includes State-owned airline Aurigny's losses, business support and revenue shortfalls as follows: 

• £51.3m of business and personal support expenditure;
• £28.3m to cover Aurigny's losses;
• £5.3m overdraft requirement for Guernsey Ports;
• £3.3m net revenue income shortfalls.

The final figure was offset by net expenditure being around £4m lower than budgeted.

In contrast, Jersey spent £190m on tackling the pandemic in 2020, including £582,000 for extra staff at the ITU, £3.3m for health staff PPE, and £10.8m for a Nightingale hospital.

However, the largest chunk of expenditure (£120m) was to help local businesses stay afloat. 

The Co-Funded Payroll Scheme was the largest source of expenditure with £97.9m. Between March and August 2020 alone, Jersey's Government helped a total of 67,137 islanders, costing £80,981,348.32. Its peak month was April, with 16,500 employees receiving payments of £21.5m.