Rates rise in St. Helier for first time in nearly a decade

Monday 07 August 2023

Rates for Jersey's most populous parish are going up for the first time in nine years.

The 8.7% increase from 1.15p to 1.25p per quarter was decided by vote last week at the St. Helier Parish Assembly to approve the accounts and agree the budget and the rates.

This parish rate is added to the Island-wide rate, which is collected by parishes but passed on to the government to fund welfare and has also risen by 11.25% (domestic) and 13.9% (non-domestic).

That Island-wide rate is based on the March RPI figure, which was 12.7%, however the most recent inflation statistics from June 2023 show a slight drop-off in the speed of increase to 10.9%.

Several other parishes – including St. Peter, St. Clement and St. Saviour – have already decided to increase their rates this year.

St. Ouen also decided to increase its rate from 1.15p to 1.26p this week.

Both parishes cited cost-of-living increases as the rationale behind the increase, which had fuelled wage inflation.

St. Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft said: "Our main cost is our staff, because we run the St. Ewolds Residential Home and the Westmount Day Nursery, and those two facilities have over a hundred staff, over half the staff of the parish. We have refuse collection, parks and garden, street cleaning, and administration."

Pictured: Constable Crowcroft said it was "impressive" that he had frozen the rates for nine years. (James Jeune)

He added: "There is always the impression that there are more rateable properties coming on the market, but this year, whatever people may think about all the building, there is hardly any increase at all in the increase of rateable property. That's because we've lost several hotels that haven't been developed yet into properties."

Instead of pushback against the raise, Constable Crowcroft said: "When it came to setting the rates, the only question was whether we had put it up high enough."

He further defended the increase, saying that it was less than the current rises in inflation.

At the Parish Assembly, it was also agreed to allocate part of the Rates Reserve to cushion some of the impact of inflation to ratepayers and that officers would look to further increase non-rates income for future years.

How do rates work?

At the 12 parish assemblies, the 'principals and electors' are asked to approve the accounts of the last financial year, which ended on 30 April, and spending for the next 12 months.

The Constable, supported by their Procureurs, will propose a rate, which must, by law, cover the parish's spending.

Each property and piece of land has a number of 'quarters' based of its rentable value, which is determined by volunteer rates assessors. If land or property is rented, then the rate is shared between the owner and the occupier. Usually, Constables will propose two or three different rates and typically recommend one of them.

READ MORE...

Rates set to increase as parishes face rising costs (13 July 2023)